NZ sharemarket dips despite strong US, Australian gains

The S&P/NZX 50 Index closed down 25 points or 0.19% at 12,880.40, with 39.9 million shares worth $161m trading.

There were 81 rises and 58 falls on the main board.

US stocks continued their march higher, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 reaching new record highs.

The Nasdaq advanced 153.78 points or 0.7% to 20,884.27, and the S&P 500 climbed 33.66 points or 0.5% to 6,297.36.

Prices robust abroad

Strength on Wall Street followed stronger-than-expected economic data, including a 0.6% gain in retail sales in June after a 0.9% decline in May, which lent more weight to the view that the US Federal Reserve will not change rates anytime soon.

Australian stocks were also sharply higher towards the end of the NZ business day on Friday, driven mostly by resource sector stocks.

“It’s a bit surprising that Australia is up so strongly, but our market was not participating at all after another quiet news day,” Salt Funds managing director Matt Goodson said.

Weighing on the index was F&P Healthcare, which will hold an investor day in Melbourne on Wednesday; the stock finished 21c, or 0.57%, down at $36.54.

Fletcher rise bucks trend

Fletcher Building, despite releasing a downbeat quarterly report, bucked the trend to end 9c or 3.03% higher at $3.06.

Goodson said Fletcher’s gains showed investors were willing to look through the data and take a long-term view.

“Markets are forward-looking and always trying to look through to a change in the cycle, which will occur at some stage as interest rate cuts kick in,” he said.

AIA drop

Auckland International Airport (AIA) dropped 12c to $7.66 after firming on Thursday.

Research firm Morningstar noted that the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment had been reviewing the regulation of airport services and stated that it was not considering a legislative change for the airport.

“The bottom line: We maintain our $9.30 fair value estimate,” Morningstar said. “Shares are undervalued.

“We think the market is unjustifiably pricing either lower returns on regulated expenditure or weakness in unregulated businesses, like retail and car parks."

Smaller aged-care firms strong

Among the small-cap stocks, the lower-tier aged-care firms performed strongly.

Leading the charge was Third Age Healthcare, up 40c or 10.7% at $4.15.

Promisia Healthcare gained 5c (9.6%) to 57c after releasing a performance update showing group care occupancy for June 2025 averaged 87%.

In the same camp was Radius Healthcare, up 3.5c (9.6%) at 40c.

It was the last day of trading for NZ Wind Farms, which is being taken over by Meridian.

“It really continues a trend of smaller companies delisting and of there being no real pipeline of new ones coming on, which has to be a concern,” Goodson said.

“If you’re not in the index, it’s very hard for these small companies to get attention.”

Looking ahead, the Consumers Price Index for the second quarter is due on Monday.

ANZ expects the index to have lifted by 0.8%, quarter-on-quarter, with annual inflation accelerating to 2.9%.

The bank said the data would need to show a “sizeable upside surprise” for the Reserve Bank of NZ to take an expected 25 basis point rate cut off the table at the release of its Monetary Policy Statement on Aug 20.