He said A2's share price had shot up last week on speculation that the company was getting access to the US market and the share price was now trickling back to where it had been before the speculation started.
"All that has really happened is it's giving back a fair whack of that gain that it achieved the other day," he said.
Synlait Milk also fell by 1.5 per cent to $3.26 by the end of the day.
Contact Energy slipped slightly down 0.13 per cent to $7.66 after it announced that it had accepted the resignation of big four accounting organisation KPMG, which has been the external auditor of the company since 2005.
The electricity generator told the NZX that the decision to change the auditor "in no way reflects on the performance of KPMG" but that the firm considered it is good governance practice for a company to change auditor from time to time. Professional services firm Ernst & Young (EY) has been appointed as the group's new external auditor – on the same day Contact Energy's financial year commenced, July 1.
Other energy stocks across the board had a mixed day – Manawa Energy was up 0.66 per cent to $6.10, Meridian Energy rose 0.19 per cent to $5.25 and Genesis Energy fell 1.9 per cent to $2.92. Mercury also jumped 2.26 per cent to $6.55.
Telecommunications company Spark declined 0.10 per cent to $5.12. Spark revealed it has had to refund nearly 113,000 customers more than $15m after they were charged for a wire maintenance service they didn't need or couldn't use or benefit from. The Commerce Commission had begun investigating the phone company in 2020 after a customer complaint.
Spark said it had provided the regulator with enforceable undertakings that committed it to refund all affected customers and had already refunded about $15m – with a remaining $348,757.92 still to be refunded to 4921 customers.
Rival telco Chorus also fell 0.38 per cent to $7.85 by the end of the day. Other falls on the index were Vulcan Steel which dropped 2.8 per cent to $9.72, and Chatham Rock Phosphate sank 8.6 per cent to 32 cents.
Millennium & Copthorne Hotels fell 4.4 per cent to $2.19 after it released its half-year earnings today. The firm told the market that while the Covid-19 pandemic continues to weigh on its accommodation business, it expects to deliver an annual profit on the strength of its property development arm.
CDL Investments, a subsidiary of Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (MCK), also released its half-year earnings today and the company's shares fell 1.2 per cent to 84 cents by early evening. CDL chair Colin Sim said the firm was still determined to match 2021's full-year revenue even though the last six months had seen a "dramatic" change in the trading environment. The company's revenue for the six months ended June was $47.8m, a fall from $61.3m in 2021.
Stocks that had a good day today included Move Logistics which rose 6.7 per cent to $1.27, My Food Bag which lifted 5.1 per cent to 82 cents and market regulator NZX was also up 3.3 per cent to $1.25.
On the currency front, the NZ dollar was trading at 62.88 US cents at 5pm, up from 62.76 on Tuesday.
- BusinessDesk
