Market close: My Food Bag drags NZ market down

My Food Bag was down 5 per cent to 57c. Photo / Supplied

The New Zealand market slipped on Monday as investors took it easy to start off a busy week of earnings and annual meetings. The S&P/NZX 50 index decreased 79.79 points, or 0.7 per cent, to 11,231.97 points.

Across the main board, 60 shares rose and 78 fell. Turnover was light at $88.7 million.

Craigs Investment Partners investment adviser Peter McIntyre said investors had “taken a breather” after strong trading days at the end of last week.

“We are the first market out of the blocks at the start of the week, so investors are probably just waiting to see how the US opens overnight.”

He said it was shaping up to be a busy week for the local market with earnings from companies, including Napier Port, Sanford and Infratil, and annual meetings, including Contract Energy and KMD Brands.

The market was dragged lower by My Food Bag, down 5 per cent to 57c. That was followed by Synlait Milk, down 4.9 per cent to $2.90. Pacific Edge fell by 3.2 per cent to 45.5c. Fisher and Paykel Healthcare, which makes up a significant chunk of the index, was also down by 2.6 per cent to $19.43. As was Mainfreight, down by 1.2 per cent to $72.52.

Outside the benchmark index, NZ King Salmon was the biggest decliner across the main board, down 5.7 per cent to 25c. On Friday, it announced it had received resource consent to begin farming the first open ocean finfish site in the Cook Strait.

At the other end, power companies helped bolster the index with Genesis Energy up 1.84 per cent to $2.77 and Mercury NZ up 0.94 per cent to $5.39. Auckland International Airport was also up 0.6 per cent to $7.755. Import and export software company TradeWindow led the main board higher, up by 4.8 per cent to 65c, after it announced it had partnered with the Employers and Manufacturers Association (EMA) in a bid to build trade digitisation capability within NZ’s export community.

Other increases included media company NZME, up by 3.5 per cent to $1.19, Burger Fuel Group, up 32.5 per cent to 32c, and T & G Global, up 2.30 per cent to $2.67.

The NZ dollar further extended its rally over the past few days trading at 61.10 US cents at 3pm in Wellington, up from 60.05 cents on Friday. The trade-weighted index was at 71.22 up from 70.89 at the end of last week. The kiwi dollar was up one cent as of Monday 3pm compared to the same time last Friday. Currency trader OFX wrote this morning that the NZ dollar was stronger heading into the weekend helped by the tailwinds of firmer risk appetite, a stronger Chinese yuan and higher commodity prices.

- BusinessDesk