Shane Solly, portfolio manager with Harbour Asset Management, said there was a bit of nervousness around what happens with the central banks' discussions.
"Once we get the communications out of the meeting things will be clearer. Inflation is still very high and I don't see the central banks cutting interest rates any time soon."
US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell was making a keynote speech overnight.
The NZ dollar was weaker at 89c against the Australian after being above 90c for the past four months.
Solly said there has been a blizzard of company reporting locally and it will still take a day or two for people to digest the financial results. But there have been more upgrades than downgrades.
Port of Tauranga rose 15c or 2.22 per cent to $6.90 after overcoming chain supply disruption with a solid annual result, recording an 8.7 per cent increase in net profit to $111.31m on revenue of $375.28m, up 10.1 per cent.
Port of Tauranga's overall trade was steady at 25.6 million tonnes, with imports reaching 9.7 million tonnes and exports 15.9 million tonnes. It is paying a final dividend of 8.2c a share on October 7.
Fellow port operator Marsden Maritime Holdings increased 10c or 1.85 per cent to $5.50 after reporting an 8.08 per cent fall in net profit to $13.1m on revenue of $17.15m, up 2.4 per cent for the year ending June. Marsden is paying a final dividend 10c a share on September 30.
Auckland International Airport was up 16.5c or 2.2 per cent to $7.68 on trade worth $18.8m; Contact Energy increased 11c to $7.88; and a2 Milk, which is reporting its much-anticipated result on Monday, improved 5c to $5.47.
PGG Wrightson gained 11c or 2.5 per cent to $4.51, and NZME was up 4c or 3.25 per cent to $1.27.
Hallenstein Glasson slipped 22c or 3.84 per cent to $5.51 after telling the market its net profit for the year ending August 1 will fall by nearly 27 per cent to $23.9m-$24.9m and its group sales were $351.21m, an increase of 0.1 per cent.
Tourism Holdings gained 5c or 1.89 per cent to $2.70 after reporting a 4 per cent decrease in revenue to $345.75m for the 12 months ending June but improving its bottom line with a loss of $2.12m compared with $14.5m in the previous year. Tourism Holdings is forecasting net profit of $17m-$30.2m for the 2023 financial year.
Wine exporter Delegat Group was down 19c to $12 despite selling a record 3.36m cases around the world in the last financial year. Sales revenue increased 8 per cent to $319.3m and net profit was up 2 per cent to $63m. Delegat is paying a final dividend of 20c a share on October 14.
Other decliners were Ryman Healthcare down 16c to $9.19; Summerset Group Holdings decreasing 20c to $11; and Sky Network Television shedding 5c or 1.91 per cent to $2.57.
Energy companies Mercury was down 21c or 3.41 per cent to $5.94, and Manawa declined 14c or 2.24 per cent to $6.10. Property companies Precinct shed 4c or 2.9 per cent to $1.33; and Argosy fell 4c or 2.97 per cent to $1.305.
Scales Corporation was down 7c to $4.68; Seeka declined 11c or 2.64 per cent to $4.05; Serko decreased 8c or 2.23 per cent to $3.50; and Comvita fell 14c or 4.13 per cent to $3.25 after delivering its second best result the day before.
Vector, paying a final dividend of 8.5c a share on September 19, gained 3c to $4.74 after reporting a 17.3 per cent fall in net profit to $160.9m on revenue of $1.34 billion, up 4.7 per cent.
New Zealand Oil & Gas staged a near $70m turnaround, reporting net profit of $25.7m following a $43.3m loss in the previous year. Revenue surged 133 per cent to $83.8m on production of 1.2m barrels of oil. Its share price increased 1.5c or 3.53 per cent to 44c.
