ASB lifted its forecast peak for the OCR from 4 per cent to 4.25 per cent.
Mark Lister, head of private wealth research with Craigs Investment Partners, said the economy is ticking over nicely. It's good for business, the sharemarket is holding its own and we are far away from a recession which some people were worried about.
"The Reserve Bank will carry on with what it's been doing – we had to see something unexpected like a weaker economy for the bank to change course," he said.
The NZ dollar strengthened slightly to US60.08c against the American greenback after going under US60c for the first time in more than a decade – apart from the Covid-19 blip. The NZ dollar had an intraday low of US59.98c.
Lister said the NZ dollar has weakened about 12 per cent this year. "That's a big fall. It's good for the farming sector and exporters like Fisher and Paykel Healthcare.
"But goods we import are more costly and the imported inflation makes the Reserve Bank's job harder," he said.
Fisher and Paykel Healthcare was down 17c to $20.05; and Spark, which is moving into the ASX 200 Index, declined 7c to $5.12 on trade worth $15.54m.
Auckland International Airport was up 7.5c to $7.7675; a2 Milk increased 4c to $6.36; Freightways gained 15c to $10.86; and Mainfreight collected $1.75 or 2.4 per cent to $74.75.
Leading banks ANZ was up 64c or 2.48 per cent to $26.47, and Westpac gained 57c or 2.4 per cent to $24.28.
Pushpay Holdings fell 13c or 10.57 per cent to $1.10 after putting out a note saying it was aware of media speculation about its expressions of interest process and it remained in compliance with the NZX continuous disclosure regulation. Its share price reached a low of 91c on February 24.
Donor management software firm Pushpay told the market in April it had received several expressions of interest in its business, which included Australian private equity firm BGH Capital and large American shareholder Sixth Street Partners.
It was speculated that Pushpay was close to a decision on selecting a preferred partner, or ending the deal process.
Lister said by the look of the share price fall something has gone wrong and Pushpay couldn't get an agreement. "We've seen another high-profile takeover bid for Ramsay Health Care by a private equity firm fall over this week. I guess the market will go back to valuing Pushpay by its own independent means."
Briscoe Group increased a further 9c to $5.55 following its solid first-half financial result. Fellow retailer The Warehouse Group was up 13c or 3.59 per cent to $3.75.
Other gainers were Vista Group up 5c or 3.23 per cent to $1.60; Channel Infrastructure collecting 3c or 2.14 per cent to $1.43; Eroad rising 8c or 4;.97 to $1.69; NZ Rural Land increasing 3c or 2.83 per cent to $1.09; Harmoney was up 5c or 7.04 per cent to 76c; and Cooks Coffee improving 5.5c or 14.86 per cent to 42.5c.
Plexure Group rose 8c or 24.24 per cent to 41c after making a presentation to the Bell Potter NZ Company Investor conference, saying it had $25.3m in the bank, up from $13.9m, at the end of March with negligible debt.
Amongst the decliners, Sanford lost 13c or 3.04 per cent to $4.15; Accordant Group fell 8c or 4.26 per cent to $1.80; Gentrack decreased 3c or 2.1 per cent to $1.40; AFT Pharmaceuticals was down 10c or 2;.86 per cent to $3.40; and NZME shed 3c or 2.44 per cent to $1.20.
Precinct Properties, up 0.005c to $1.34, has sold a $377m portfolio of four buildings to Precinct Pacific Investment, a limited partnership of investors. The buildings are Mayfair House and Charles Fergusson Building in Wellington and 10 and 12 Madden St in Wynyard Quarter, Auckland. Precinct will continue to manage them and hold a 24.9 per cent stake in the limited partnership.
