Market close: Heavyweight stocks drag NZX lower

Mainfreight was down 19c to $47.80. Photo / File

The New Zealand sharemarket dipped for the second day running, again led by the two biggest stocks that dominate daily trading.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index fell 144.40 points or 1.21 per cent to 11,793.16 with 79.15 million shares worth $232.18 million changing hands. There were 42 gainers and 96 decliners over the whole market. The index has now fallen 2.5 per cent over two days.

Fisher and Paykel Healthcare was down $1.34 or 3.64 per cent to $35.51, and during the day fell as much as 5 per cent. The a2 Milk Company dropped 29c or 1.56 per cent to $18.30. Combined trading in the two stocks totalled nearly $55m, nearly a quarter of the day's volume.

Other top 10 market cap stocks to fall were Mainfreight, down 19c to $47.80 and Contact Energy, down 6c to $6.19. Contact said it has completed the purchase of Wellington-based Simply Energy.

The dual-listed banks also had significant falls, ANZ down 70c or 3.47 per cent to $19.45 and Westpac declined 60c or 3.11 per cent to $18.70. ANZ Bank announced it has completed the sale of UDC Finance to Shinsei Bank.

Mark Lister, head of private wealth research at Craigs Investment Partners, said after such a strong performance in August the market is giving a bit back and taking a breather with the reporting season finished.

"It's understandable. The local market hit a closing high on Friday and in August the United States had seen one of its strongest markets in decades. I'm sure there is some post-season rebalancing going on and investors are now turning their focus to the rest of the year with two important events – our election and the US election."

Asked if the New Zealand market was having a sell-off, Lister said: "I don't think so. You always get ups and downs, and the downs will be met with some buying. There's so much cash sitting on the sideline in this low interest rate environment. If the Covid cases keep creeping, then maybe there might be some nervousness."

Fletcher Building fell 15c or 4.18 per cent to $3.44, Pushpay Holdings was down 15c or 1.71 per cent to $8.60, and Ebos increased 25c to $23.37.

Casino and hotel operator SkyCity, one of the biggest casualties of the Covid lockdowns, fell 11c or 4.31 per cent to $2.44. SkyCity is expected to report a 60 per cent decline in net profit on Thursday.

Retailer Briscoe Group rose 5c or 1.41 per cent to $3.60; Tourism Holdings increased 9c or 4.35 per cent to $2.16; and Stride Property was up 5c or 2.59 per cent to $1.98 after earlier announcing it was buying the 34 Shortland St office building for $67.5m, representing a yield of 6.3 per cent.

Restaurant Brands slipped 17c or 1.39 per cent to $12.03, a day before it is purchasing 69 KFC and Taco Bell stores and a head office facility in Southern California for US$73m ($107.9m).

Overnight, two leading American stocks had share splits, Apple finishing at US$129.04, up 3.39 per cent, and Tesla at US$498.32, up 12.57 per cent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average index dropped three companies, ExxonMobil, which joined the Dow in 1928, Pfizer and Raytheon in favour of Salesforce.com, biotechnology firm Amgen and Honeywell International. The Apple share split meant the Dow had to rebalance its technology weighting.

Gold gained ground during the day, rising more than 20 per cent to US$1988.42 an ounce at 5.30pm.