Fisher & Paykel Healthcare shares plunge on Trump tariff news – Market close

The New Zealand sharemarket slumped to its biggest single-day-fall since December 19.

Fisher and Paykel Healthcare fell more than 6.5% and the New Zealand sharemarket slumped as the new Trump tariffs began to hit home.

The S&P/NZX 500 Index was down sharply at the opening and stayed that way to close at 12,810.32, down 184.69 points or 1.42%. It was the biggest single-day-fall since December 19, when the index was down 1.5%.

Increased volumes reached 32 million shares worth $182.23 million with market leader Fisher and Paykel Healthcare dominating trading, two million of its shares worth $70.76m changing hands.

Fisher and Paykel Healthcare was down $2.50 or 6.65% to $35.10 after US President Donald Trump imposed 25% tariffs on products imported into the US from Canada and Mexico and 10% on Chinese goods.

Fisher & Paykel said it manufactures 45% of its medical products volume in Mexico, the rest in New Zealand, and in the first half of the 2025 financial year, about 43% of the revenue came from the US – with 60% of US volumes supplied from the Mexico manufacturing facilities.

The company said it doesn’t expect a material impact from the new tariffs on its net profit in the 2025 financial year but costs would likely increase the following year.

Fisher and Paykel is still expecting to reach its gross margin target of 65% through long-standing continuous improvement activities, but the US tariffs may add two to three years to that expectation.

Matt Goodson, managing director of Salt Funds Management, said the markets, and Fisher and Paykel, responded as expected to the Trump tariff shocks.

“The difficulty for investors is knowing how long the tariffs will be in place or whether they are permanent. Trump is threatening tariffs on the European Union and a 10% universal one on all countries, and there’s the threat of retaliation with countries imposing their own tariffs on the US.

“How it all ends up is uncertain and markets hate uncertainty. And there’s the broader economic impact – one commentator has described it as the dumbest trade war in history.”

Goodson said one analysis showed US Gross Domestic Product will take a 1% hit and inflation will rise 0.7% – a shock similar to the Covid outbreak.

Across the Tasman, the S&P/ASX 200 Index had fallen 1.79% to 8379.4 points at 6pm NZT. The US S&P 500 Futures was showing a 2% fall on Wall Street overnight.

The New Zealand dollar weakened further to US55.4c against the American greenback. The Kiwi was at that level briefly in late 2022 and before that during the post-Global Financial Crisis period in 2009.

Mainfreight was down $1.51 or 2.1% to $70.49; Skellerup declined 12c or 2.36% to $4.97; Infratil eased 10c to $11.11; Spark shed 6c or 2.06% to $2.85; and Mercury Energy was down 8c to $6.23.

Port of Tauranga decreased 10c to $6.40; South Port NZ was down 19c or 3.23% to $5.69; Synlait Milk declined 3c or 5.17% to 55c; Sky TV eased 5c or 1.79% to $2.75; Seeka fell 18c or 5.33% to $3.20; and Eroad shed 3c or 2.78% to $1.05.

Gentrack was up 18c to $12.89; Auckland International Airport gained 14c to $8.78; Cooks Coffee increased 1.5c or 5.56% to 28.5c; 2 Cheap Cars rose 4c or 5.19% to 81c; Bremworth collected 3c or 6.67% to 48c; and New Talisman Gold Mines rose 0.009c or 23.68% to 4.7c.

Fletcher Building, up 2c to $2.88, has filled its board of directors with Peter Crowley appointed chair and Jacqui Coombes joining as an independent director.

Crowley has been a Fletcher director since 2019 and has 40 years’ experience in the global construction materials and building products industries. Coombes was an executive director of Bunnings Group from 2017-21 and Bunnings New Zealand from 2011-21.

SkyCity, easing 1c to $1.39, has agreed to pay the South Australian Treasurer A$38.1m ($42m) for additional duty and interest from the Adelaide Casino for the period January 2014 to January 24. SkyCity said it completes the long-running contractual dispute with the Treasurer.

Vector, down 1c to $3.93, has completed the $150m sale of its liquified petroleum gas (LPG) business Ongas and 60.25% shareholding in Liquigas to Elgas Limited, the largest LPG provider in Australasia.

Rakon, unchanged at 57c, is reorganising its global business into two market-led units – aerospace and defence, and commercial including telecommunications, artificial intelligence and positioning – instead of having three units based on the manufacturing centres in New Zealand, India and France.

Michael Zecri, previously chief executive of Lynred USA, has been appointed managing director of the aerospace unit, and Adam Robinson, the company’s global head of sales since 2019, as interim managing director of the commercial unit.

Being AI, last traded at 28c, has been suspended under the NZX listing rules because it presently has no independent directors after two resigned last week.