KEY POINTS:
Just one top-50 New Zealand stock has bucked the downward trend in the sharemarket this month.
PGG Wrightson raised its share price from $2.10 on December 21 to $2.14 at the close of trading yesterday, from a turnover of just over $2.5 million.
The 1.91 per cent rise was the only price increase to a top-50 stock over the past month.
An overnight slump in the European sharemarkets on Monday night sent New Zealand stocks plunging yesterday, extending market losses to a record 14th consecutive session.
The New Zealand exchange's benchmark top-50 index dived 141 points in the first 30 minutes yesterday morning to 3506, its lowest level since September 2006.
Apart from PGG Wrightson, the best-faring shares since December 21 last year were APN News & Media, ING Property Trust, Kiwi Income Property Trust, and AMP NZ Office Trust, all of which dropped less than 3 per cent over the course of the month.
Tourism Holdings has suffered the biggest drop, falling 19.28 per cent since December 21, while Ryman Healthcare, Nuplex Industries, AMP and Trustpower all dropped between 15 and 18 per cent.
Contact Energy, Telecom and Fletcher Building shares also dropped over the past month. Contact was down 13.58 per cent and Telecom was down 9.73 per cent, while Fletcher Building dropped 11.16 per cent, breaking under the $10 threshold to finish at $9.95.
ABN Amro Craigs chief investment officer Cameron Watson said it was difficult to find a pattern in the month's share prices for top-50 companies. He said all stocks were suffering from a massive sentiment change on the part of investors.
"When the world markets fall, the good stocks fall just as much as the ones that deserve to take a beating," he said. "PGG Wrightson are in the right space, and they're doing very well, but you could argue that other stocks are as well."
Watson said he expected the share prices of more defensive companies to hold up the best, as they would be better placed to maintain income and dividends.
"I'm telling clients to focus on companies that are defensive of their income," he said. He listed property, infrastructure, well-performing exporters and core goods like food as sound investments.
