Market close: NZ shares edge ahead on quiet day

Summerset Group Holdings jumped 2.6 per cent to $9.40. Photo / Supplied

New Zealand’s share market managed to edge up on Tuesday with a lack of market leads with US markets closed for the Juneteenth holiday.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index rose 38.6 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 11,789.370. Turnover on the entire market was $129.8 million with 68 stocks rising and 52 falling.

The latest data pointed to continued brakes being put on economic growth with the quarterly Westpac McDermott Miller Consumer Confidence index indicating NZ households will pull back on spending in the coming months. The index rose 5.4 points in the June quarter to 83.1.

Devon Funds head of retail Greg Smith said the index had held positives and negatives but there were “more pessimists than optimists”.

“The survey basically showed that 40 per cent of households say they’ve gone backwards over the past year,” he said. “That’s not really surprising.”

Westpac ended the day up 2 per cent to $23.72.

Smith said there was no real theme to the day, with the market having a mixed bag of big and small stocks making movements.

Investore Property was up 2.2 per cent to $1.38 and Vital Healthcare Property Trust rose 1.1 per cent to $2.34. Kiwi Property Group edged up 0.6 per cent to 90.5 cents and Property for Industry was up 0.4 per cent to $2.385.

Goodman Property Trust rose 0.2 per cent to $2.185 while Argosy Property was flat at $1.12 per share.

My Food Bag lost some of its recent gains and was down 3 per cent to 19.4 cents back and cinema tech group Vista – which got a stock movement query from NZ RegCo on Monday – fell 1.2 per cent to $1.69.

Summerset Group Holdings jumped 2.6 per cent to $9.40 while Ryman Healthcare was up 0.8 per cent to $6.47.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rose 1.2 per cent to $24.53. A2 Milk slipped 1.9 per cent to $5.58.

Index heavyweight Mainfreight edged down 0.8 per cent to $71.70. Software firm Task Group – formerly known as Plexure slumped 6.3 per cent to 45 cents.

Pacific Edge fell 4.4 per cent to 8.7 cents.

On the currency front, the NZ dollar was trading at 61.85 US cents at 3pm in Wellington, from 62.20 cents on Friday.