NZ Sharemarket Down 0.2%

The New Zealand sharemarket was decidedly cautious as Westpac increased its longer-term mortgage rates and the Reserve Bank of Australia kept its cash rate on hold. The S&P/NZX 50 had a steady morning but dipped in the afternoon and closed at 13,454.78, down 31.54 points or 0.23%. There were 52 gainers and 82 decliners on the main board, with trading reaching 51.1 million share transactions worth $214.8m.

Wholesale interest rates have risen sharply since the last OCR reduction late last month, and this has increased funding costs for fixed home loans. The Two-Year Government Bond rate has risen to 3.33% and the 10 Year to 4.5%. Westpac, down 48c to $43.30 on the NZX, has cut its six-month special home loan rate to 4.69%, and has increased its longer-term deposit rates in line with the 0.3% rise in longer-term mortgages. Across the Tasman, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) left its OCR unchanged at 3.6% because of the threat of rising inflation. The RBA said recent data suggested the risks to inflation have tilted to the upside, but it would take a little longer to assess the persistence of inflationary pressures. It was appropriate to remain cautious. The central bank said economic activity continued to recover, with growth in private demand strengthening, driven by both consumption and investment. Activity and prices in the housing market also continued to pick up.  The S&P/ASX 200 Index was down 0.4% to 8,590 points at 6pm NZ time.

At home, leading stocks Fisher and Paykel Healthcare was down 13c to $38.06 on trade worth $25.7m; Ebos Group declined 25c to $27.44; Mercury decreased 11c or 1.7122% to $6.33; a2 Milk eased 15c to $10.27; and Summerset was down 19c to $11.94. Other decliners were Vista Group falling 8c or 3.02% to $2.57 following a broker downgrade; Eroad decreasing 5c or 3.98% to $1.20; PGG Wrightson easing 4c or 1.82% to $2.16; and Santana Minerals shedding 4c or 4.4% to 87c. Vulcan Steel fell 34c or 4.15% to $7.85; Vector was down 8c to $4.64; SkyCity declined 1.5c or 12.8% to 82c; and Allied Farmers shed 3.5c or 4.35% to 77c.

Sky TV rebounded 22c or 6.81% to $3.45 after Paramount Skydance Corp made a higher counteroffer to buy Warner Bros. Discovery at US$30 (NZ$51.81) a share following Netflix’s cash and shares takeover bid.

Gentrack also rebounded, rising 38c or 4.13% to $9.58; Auckland International Airport gained 10c to $8.09 on trade worth $32.1m; Tourism Holdings increased 4c to $2.64; Rakon rose 4c or 5.23% to $0.80; and 2 Cheap Cars was up 3c or 5.08% to 62c.

Tower, down 0.005c to $1.945, has been ordered by the High Court to pay $7m for the misapplication of multi-policy discounts totalling about $11m and involving 61,000 customers. The Financial Markets Authority took the court action after Tower self-reported the issue. Both parties agreed that the misapplication was the result of failures in systems and processes, not management decisions. Tower said the $7m penalty, recommended to the court, would have no impact on its full-year 2026 financial results. Payments to affected customers will total about $12m, including interest.

Source: Business Desk

Ahead of the local open SPI futures were 24 points higher at 8614.

- close [Morningstar with AAP]: Australia's share market has crept lower after the Reserve Bank offered nothing to allay investor fears its interest rate cutting cycle may be over.

The S&P/ASX200 fell 38.5 points on Tuesday, down 0.45 per cent to 8,585.9, as the broader All Ordinaries lost 39.2 points, or 0.44 per cent, to 8,875.8.

The leading benchmarks eased after the RBA left the cash rate at 3.6 per cent for a fourth straight meeting, but downside was limited as the central bank's cautious, data-dependent outlook offered no surprises to investors.

"You've seen, really a market that was very well priced for this situation - the interest rate futures and swaps priced this one almost perfectly," Pepperstone head of research Chris Weston told AAP.

"And we did have governor (Michele) Bullock speaking last week, and she effectively told us everything we needed to know."

However, there was a pronounced dip in equities and spike in the Aussie dollar when Ms Bullock mentioned the RBA's choices would likely be restricted to holding or hiking in 2026.

Interest rate markets were unchanged following the decision, still pricing a 25 basis point interest rate hike by August 2026, while some analysts tipped an increase as soon as February.

All 11 local sectors traded lower by the close, led by slumps in IT and energy stocks following a weak lead from Wall Street's tech-heavy Nasdaq index and after production resumed at an Iraqi oil field.

Woodside and Santos both slipped more than 1.2 per cent each, while coal producers traded lower and uranium stocks caught a bid.

The heavyweight financials sector grinded less than 0.1 per cent into the red, with the big four banks mixed as NAB shares rallied one per cent to $41.01, while ANZ eked a minor gain and CBA and Westpac slipped 0.6 per cent each.

Commonwealth Bank paid a record $792,000 in penalties over Consumer Data Right breaches, after voluntarily reporting the issue to the consumer watchdog.

Raw materials stocks dropped 0.6 per cent as the gold price treaded water near $US4,185 ($A6,297) an ounce, weighing on ASX-listed miners.

Iron ore giants were mixed as the underlying commodity's futures slipped to $US105.50 a tonne, with Fortescue posting gains while Rio traded flat and BHP slipped 0.4 per cent to $44.30 after entering a $US2 billion ($A3 billion) infrastructure agreement with a Blackrock subsidiary.

Liontown shares faded 2.3 per cent after the lithium miner executed an offtake agreement with Canmax Technologies, as competitor Pilbara minerals continued higher.

Rare earths producers were under continued pressure, with Lynas down fiver per cent to $12.93, on par with November lows.

In company news, TPG Telecom share fell 1.6 per cent after CEO I??aki Berroeta linked a second death to a September outage in his evidence to a senate committee.

Austal was the top-200's best performer, up 3.7 per cent amid reports federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers will soon rule on whether South Korean counterpart Hanwha can increase its stake in the naval ship builder.

Health care stocks were under continued pressure, as heavyweight CSL sunk two per cent to $181.82, a 33 per cent discount to its early-August price, before a lukewarm financial result and restructuring plan prompted a major sell-off.

The Australian dollar is hovering near its recent 12-week highs, buying 65.42 US cents, on par with Monday at 5pm.

ON THE ASX:

The S&P/ASX200 fell 38.5 points, or 0.45 per cent, to 8,585.9

The broader All Ordinaries gained 39.2 points, or 0.44 per cent, to 8,875.8

The NZX 50 Lost -44.31 points (-0.33%) to 13410.47

[Morningstar with Dow Jones]:

U.S. stocks ended mixed. The DJIA declined 0.4% to 47,560.29, the S&P 500 dropped 0.1% to 6,840.51 and the Nasdaq added 0.1% to 23,576.49.

Among S&P 500 companies, the top three gainers were Newmont Corp NEM surging 5.72%, AppLovin Corp APP jumped 5.05%, and Apollo Asset Management, Inc. APO lifted 4.74%.

The biggest decliners were AutoZone Inc AZO which dropped 7.17%, The Campbell's Co CPB fell 5.23%, and JPMorgan Chase & Co JPM lost 4.66%.

Asia

Chinese shares closed lower. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index slipped 0.4% to 3,909.52 and the Shenzhen Composite Index fell 0.5% to 2,485.93.

Hong Kong shares ended lower. The benchmark Hang Seng Index slipped 1.3% to 25,434.23.

Japanese shares ended higher. The Nikkei Stock Average climbed 0.1% to 50,655.10.

India shares ended lower. The BSE SENSEX slipped 0.5% to 84,666.28.

Europe

Stocks in the U.K. finished flat. The FTSE 100 Index was unchanged at 9,642.01. In Europe, shares closed mixed. The Germany's DAX lifted 0.5% to 24,162.65, and the France's CAC 40 dropped 0.7% to 8,052.51