New Zealand shares were mixed, with Comvita bouncing off yesterday's lows and Z Energy up, while Tegel Group Holdings and Auckland International Airport fell.
The S&P/NZX50 Index dropped 3.69 points, or 0.05 per cent, to 7,064.16. Within the index, 21 stocks rose, 20 fell and nine were unchanged. Turnover was $114.9 million.
"It just seems to be most stocks, in the absence of news, are kind of flat, or every week it's one's turn for bargain hunters to think 'this looks a bit cheap' and bid it up," said James Smalley, director at Hamilton Hindin Greene. "Around December 15, that's when we saw the index move up north of 7,000 again, that's people who may have gone to cash starting to re-position or put that money back in the market. Yes, interest rates have bottomed, but they're not going through the roof, and there's a bit of an opportunity cost having cash at 2 per cent at the moment. That's a theme leading up to reporting season."
Comvita was the best performer, bouncing 7.5 per cent to $6.99, having dropped 17 per cent yesterday after the manuka honey products maker warned annual earnings will tumble by about two-thirds as the nation's unseasonably wet and windy weather saps the honey harvest and slow sales via China's informal trading channels.
"We had a couple of hundred thousand through yesterday, it's at around 95,000 at the moment - I guess just a couple of profit takers rolling through," Smalley said. "It wasn't like something had occurred to affect product margins permanently, it was just a lack of product. The nature of their business is they're always going to be subject to climatic issues, maybe buyers are looking at longer-term prospects for that sector of the market, good demand from middle-class Chinese consumers."
