NZ shares declined at the end of a volatile week that saw Donald Trump win the US presidency. Orion Health Group and Kathmandu Holdings led the index lower, while Trade Me Group rose.
The S&P/NZX50 dropped 35.93 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 6697.79. Within the index, 32 stocks fell, 12 rose and seven were unchanged. Turnover was $177.3 million.
"We've had a bit of a rough day and I think we've got more in store," said David Price, broker at Forsyth Barr. "A good thing to remember is this isn't going to blow over in the course of a few days. We'll have quite a lot of volatility before things really get bedded down offshore. You have seen quite a strong sell-off in the interest-rate-sensitive stocks. The market's had a pretty strong run over a long period of time. It has been stretched on historic multiples and there's probably room for it to come back a little further."
Orion fell 6.7 per cent to $2.80.
"It's fallen on a lack of volume and that's what we're seeing at the moment; the movements are accentuated by a lack of volume," Price said. "We've had a lot of people domestically who've been allocating offshore, because they feel offshore assets are better value, so when something comes through it's not met with the wall of buying that we had seen previously."