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Market Summary
A bad day on Wall Street after Nvidia’s result helped drive the New Zealand sharemarket down, but many stocks ended well off their lows.
The S&P/NZX 50 Index closed 20 points, or 0.15%, down at 13,419.40, with 37.2 million shares worth $137.9m trading.
On the day, there were 55 rises and 90 falls on the main board.
In the US, the Nasdaq Composite closed 2.2% lower, more than reversing an early 2% gain, while the benchmark S&P 500 index fell by 1.6%.
Chip maker Nvidia, a poster child for the AI boom, had initially rallied more than 5% after posting better-than-expected quarterly results, but ended the day down 3%.
The market was weaker but was faring better than many others.
Aussie also down
Late in the NZ day, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index was down 1.4%.
There was a big intraday turn-down in the US, which was initially up quite strongly and then turned to finish down relatively hard.
Nvidia questions
There was euphoria in markets on Thursday following the “headline” Nvidia result, but the quality of the Nvidia result is coming into increasing question now, and the quality of their numbers is the big issue there.
A return to reality meant data centre stocks came under pressure, among them Infratil, which dropped 40c to $11.55.
Outside of the AI world, retirement village company Oceania dropped half a cent to 82c after reporting a $4.9m six-month profit against a loss of $17.1m a year earlier.
Oceania are slowly getting there, but their new sales were just a little bit behind the hopes of some of the bulls.
Turners revs up
Turners Automotive gained 25c to $8.02 after reporting on Thursday a 13% increase in net profit for the first half, saying it was on track to report a record full-year, pre-tax profit of around $60m.
F&P Healthcare down Fisher and Paykel Healthcare (FPH), the market’s biggest stock, fell 26c to $36.88 before its first half result, due out on Wednesday.
The company’s guidance for the half is for revenue of $1.075 billion and net profit of $200m, implying growth of 3% and 31% respectively.
Software firm Gentrack gained 35c to $7.85 after announcing that its “g2″ platform had been selected to enhance operations and customer experience at Pennon Water Services, one of the UK’s leading business water and wastewater retailers.
This marks the first customer to adopt g2 in the UK, and the first g2 water implementation, Gentrack said. It is also due to report results on Monday.
Eroad fell 5.5c to $1.485 after reporting a $146m first-half net loss (from its year-ago $11m loss), driven by a $135m goodwill impairment.
Drug company AFT Pharmaceuticals was the best performer on the day, rising 35c or 10% to $3.75 after reporting a strong result this week.
Eyes on OCR announcement
Looking ahead, the market also has the Reserve Bank of NZ's official cash rate review on Wednesday to focus on.
A quarter-point cut to 2.25% is widely expected.
Source: BusinessDesk
Australian Market Report
Ahead of the local open SPI futures were 92 points higher at 8519.
- close [Morningstar with AAP]: Australia's share market has crumbled to its lowest level since June, as concerns about stretched valuations meet a reduced outlook for interest rate cuts.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 lost 136.2 points on Friday, down 1.59 per cent, to 8,416.5, as the broader All Ordinaries fell 147.7 points, or 1.67 per cent, to 8,686.3.
A stronger than expected US jobs report overnight dampened hopes of incoming interest rate cuts from the world's largest central bank, dragging on equities markets.
The top-200 has tumbled more than seven per cent after hitting an all-time high of 9,115.2 in mid-October, and has fallen each of the past four weeks.
"I guess we all sort of knew that the market had run fairly significantly to the top side," IG market analyst Tony Sycamore told AAP.
"It tried a number of times to break down, and it just hadn't done it, and now, maybe it is starting to look like something more sinister."
The raw materials sector led the losses, sinking almost four per cent, as all 11 sectors traded into the red.
Gold stocks sold off as expectations of higher for longer interest rates weighed on the precious metal's price outlook, with spot prices slipping to $US4,054 ($A6,285) an ounce.
Mixed miners, rare earths producers and lithium plays also fell as investors tempered their expectations for an artificial intelligence revolution.
Iluka was one of the top-200's second-worst performers with a loss of 11 per cent to $6.32.
Energy stocks dropped sharply, down 3.1 per cent ahead of potential peace talks between Ukraine and Russia's leaders, while jitters around the AI narrative weighed on uranium producers.
Coal stocks were broadly lower with Whitehaven, Yancoal and New Hope Corporation down between two and 4.2 per cent.
The heavyweight financials sector slipped 0.7 per cent, as CBA offered a modest, 0.04 per cent glimmer of hope while its big four competitors grinded lower.
CommBank shares are still down more than 12 per cent since its $2.6 billion first quarter profit failed to wow investors earlier in November.
Interest rate sensitive stocks were hit hard, with real estate (-2.0 per cent), IT stocks (-1.0 per cent) and consumer discretionaries (-1.3 per cent) and industrials (-1.0 per cent) all under selling pressure.
Online retailer Kogan lifted 0.7 per cent, despite posting a more than 30 per cent reduction in earnings over the first four months of the current financial year.
The defensive health care and consumer staples segments performed best, trading roughly flat on Friday as Ryman Healthcare outperformed the market, lifting 5.4 per cent to $2.54.
Mayne Pharma tanked by almost 25 per cent after federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers scuppered a $627 million takeover plan by US healthcare giant Cosette, on advice from the Foreign Investment Review Board.
Shares in logistics technology company WiseTech Global rallied 2.4 per cent after the company reaffirmed forward guidance, but its price is still down more than 50 per cent since the same time last year, following a raft of controversies and multiple board resignations.
The Australian dollar is buying 64.47 US cents, down from 64.79 US cents on Thursday at 5pm.
ON THE ASX:
The S&P/ASX200 fell 136.2 points, or 1.36.2 per cent, to 8,416.5
The broader All Ordinaries fell 147.7 points, or 1.67 per cent, to 8,686.3
The NZX 50 Lost -16.63 points (-0.12%) to 13402.77
Companies Holding Annual General Meeting (ASX 300):
Alpha HPA Limited
Companies commencing Ex-Dividend Trading Today (ASX 300):
Infomedia Limited
Overseas Market Report
[Morningstar with Dow Jones]:
U.S. stocks ended higher. The DJIA rose 1.1% to 46,245.41, the S&P 500 gained 1% to 6,602.99 and the Nasdaq lifted 0.9% to 22,273.08.
Among S&P 500 companies, the top three gainers were Ross Stores Inc ROST surging 8.41%, Align Technology Inc ALGN jumped 7.34%, and Builders FirstSource Inc BLDR lifted 7.14%.
The biggest decliners were Oracle Corp ORCL which dropped 5.70%, Vistra Corp VST fell 3.08%, and L3Harris Technologies Inc LHX lost 2.34%.
Asia
Chinese shares closed lower. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell 2.4% to 3,834.89 and the Shenzhen Composite Index fell 3.4% to 2,370.32.
Hong Kong shares ended lower. The benchmark Hang Seng Index dropped 2.4% to 25,220.02.
Japanese shares ended lower. The Nikkei Stock Average declined 2.4% to 48,625.88.
India shares ended lower. The BSE SENSEX fell 0.5% to 85,231.92.
Europe
Stocks in the U.K. finished higher. The FTSE 100 Index rose 0.1% to 9,539.71. In Europe, shares closed mixed. The Germany's DAX slipped 0.8% to 23,091.87, and the France's CAC 40 was unchanged at 7,982.65
