Share in THL fell by 11.18% to $1.43, down 18c with 2,277,943 shares trading hands to the value of $3,246,107.79.
Devon Funds Management head of retail Greg Smith said that THL could be one of the most directly impacted companies from the US tariffs.
“It just highlights the repercussions that America is seeing from effectively declaring a tariff war on the rest of the world,” Smith said.
“They said Europe was down 40 to 50% on last year, which is detrimental to them. Tourism is probably, definitely, the most affected industry to date.”
Spark also had a lot of movement today, with its share price rising by 1.94% to $2.10, up 4c with 8,653,009 shares trading hands to the value of $18,042,248.08.
“Obviously, it’s been a shocker this year for them really, but Spark suffered from a very weak domestic economy on a number of fronts, and possibly there’s some optimism over them being able to ride if you like the economic recovery.”
Stats NZ released its update to the Consumers Price Index inflation figures, with the rate increasing to 2.5% in the 12 months to the March 2025 quarter.
Smith said that the result shouldn’t dissuade the Reserve Bank from cutting the Official Cash Rate in the future.
“Inflation picked up to 2.5%, and even though it’s up on where it was in the December quarter, it’s still in that 1-3% band, and there was some good positive news on rent inflation, which has been a source of inflation.”
Other shares that were boosted following the inflation rate announcement included Kiwi Property Group and Precinct Properties.
Kiwi Property Group saw its share price rise by 2.38% to $0.86, up 2c with 1,782,922 shares trading hands to the value of $1,510,203.69.
While Precinct Properties’ was up 2.35% to $1.09, up 2.5c with 2,511,524 shares trading hands to the value of $2,726,280.14.
Looking ahead to the three-day week coming up, Smith said to look out for consumer confidence numbers, alongside any more news regarding tariffs out of the US.
Wall Street traders were back in sell-off mode Wednesday while the US dollar fell further as downcast comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell added to weakness in semiconductor giant Nvidia.
After a relatively peaceful couple of days on markets following tariff-related volatility last week, investors were once again on the defensive. Gold, a safe-haven asset in times of uncertainty, climbed above US$3,300 an ounce for the first time.
“Tariffs are highly likely to generate at least a temporary rise in inflation,” Powell told the Economic Club of Chicago, warning that the inflationary effects “could also be more persistent”.
US stocks hit session lows shortly after Powell’s comments before recovering a bit in the final minutes of trading.
The Dow closed down 1.7% at 39,669.39, while the S&P 500 also closed down 2.2% at 5,275.70.
Nasdaq finished down 3.1%, closing at 16,307.16.
– Additional reporting AFP
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.
