NZ Sharemarket Opens Third Quarter Flat

The New Zealand sharemarket opened the new quarter on a flat note yesterday. The S&P/NZX 50 Index traded in a range of 13,585.01 and 13,669.33, and closed at 13,610.5, down 11.16 points or 0.08%. There were 59 gainers and 69 decliners on the main board, and volumes reached 43.4 million shares worth $177.5m.  Auckland International Airport, up 28c or 3.35% to $8.63, led the trading with $24.34m shares changing hands.

The local market was up 5.5% in the June quarter and outperformed Australia, which gained 4%. But there was quite a divergence locally between the best and worst performing stocks in the NZX top 50, Gentrack and a2 Milk were down 41% and 20%, respectively, while Vista Group and Infratil increased by 39% and 33%, respectively.

ANZ Bank expects a 25-basis-point rise in the OCR to 2.5% when the RBNZ meets next Wednesday. In uncertain times, it’s all about risk management, the bank said. With the OCR still 75 basis points below the RBNZ’s estimate of the neutral rate, the NZ dollar much softer than assumed and inflation set to sit above the (target) band for a period, it’s sensible to get a hike under the belt, despite the sharp fall in oil prices. “To our mind, an OCR of 2.25% is too low to balance the risks around medium-term inflation,” ANZ said.

In the US, the major indices continued to climb, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.26% to 52,319.2 points, the S&P 500 gaining 0.79% to 7,499.36, and the Nasdaq Composite increasing 1.52% to 26,213.72. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq posted their best quarterly performances since 2020, while the Dow recorded its strongest first half in five years, up 8.9%. The S&P 500 was up 9.6% for the half, and the Nasdaq increased 12%.

Across the Tasman, the S&P/ASX 200 Index was down 0.42% to 8,876.60 points (at 6pm NZ time) with weakness in the banking, real estate and retail sectors. On the NZX, the dual-listed stocks ANZ Bank and Westpac declined by $1.43, or 3.3%, to $41.57 and by $1.03, or 2.4%, to $41.97, respectively. Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was down 46c to $38.55; Fletcher Building decreased 11c or 3.24% to $3.28; Vulcan Steel declined 15c or 2.38% to $6.15; and Ryman Healthcare shed 4c or 1.77% to $2.22. Energy stocks Meridian was down 12c or 2.06% to $5.70, and Mercury eased 8c to $6.82. A2 Milk shed 17c or 1.86% to $8.98 after 10 consecutive trading days of rises, and recovered from $6.30 on June 9. Ebos Group gained 23c to $21.06; Mainfreight was up 70c to $62.75; Third Age Health rose 17c or 3.78% to $4.67; and SkyCity rebounded 3.5c or 6.36% to 58.5c. Serko was up 4c or 2.76% to $1.49; NZME gained 3c or 2.8% to $1.10; Synlait Milk rose 4.5c or 12.5% to 40.5c; and Goodman NZ increased 6c or 2.96% to $2.09.

Carpet maker Bremworth rose 13.5c or 19.15% to 84c after the NZ Commerce Commission gave clearance for the takeover by Auckland-based Floorscape. Bremworth is still negotiating a date to implement the scheme of arrangement.

Infratil, up 7c to $15.50, announced that One NZ (formerly Vodafone) chief executive Jason Paris was stepping down after almost eight years in the role and will be replaced by chief financial officer Nick Judd. Infratil owns One NZ.

Spark, gaining 4.5c, or 2.4%, to $1.92, told the market that the government’s intended policy approach to renewing spectrum in the 2,300 MHz and 2,600 MHz bands introduced an unwelcome level of uncertainty. “As currently framed, the approach reduces the amount of spectrum Spark can use to serve customers on its network and raises questions about ongoing access to key spectrum bands. This uncertainty risks impacting the timing and scale of investment in network infrastructure, including in regional New Zealand.”

Source: Business Desk

Ahead of the local open SPI futures were 2 points higher at 8744.

- close [Morningstar with AAP]: Australia's share market has had a dour start to the new financial year, dropping for the seventh time out of its past 10 sessions after a sell-off in banking and supermarket stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index on Wednesday finished 55.8 points lower at 8,722.9, a drop of 0.64 per cent, while the broader All Ordinaries fell 54.8 points, or 0.61 per cent, to 8,931.4.

The ASX200 ended the day at its lowest level in 20 days and up less than 0.1 per cent since the start of 2026.

All the major banks fell sharply, pulling the financial sector down 1.7 per cent.

ANZ lost 2.5 per cent to $34.47 in its worst daily performance since May 1, while the other three big retail banks were close behind.

CBA fell 2.4 per cent to $160.73, NAB retreated 2.3 per cent to $36.99 and Westpac subtracted 1.5 per cent to $34.70.

In the consumer staples sector, Coles suffered its worst drop since the war with Iran began on February 27, falling 4.2 per cent to $23.35 as the supermarket giant said it was considering the potential purchase of Petbarn owner Greencross from private equity firm TPG.

The drop likely shows investors were worried the potential acquisition would be a distraction from chief executive chief executive Leah Weckert's successful simplification strategy, analysts said.

Woolworths fell 1.8 per cent to $39.31 while the consumer staples sector as a whole dropped 2.1 per cent.

A total of seven of the ASX's 11 sectors were lower, while energy, materials, health care and utilities finished higher.

The sector split was a fitting reminder of the key lesson from the financial year that just finished, said Betashares investment strategist Tom Wickenden.

That lesson was Australian equities remained highly dependent on narrow pockets of leadership while investors searched for the next source of broad earnings growth, he said.

The biggest loser in the ASX300 was Objective Corp, which crashed 34.5 per cent to a six-year low of $6.75 after the public sector software company lost a longstanding software contract on short notice.

Objective Corp chief executive Tony Walls said the company he founded was "deeply disappointed" with the Australian defence department's decision, which came after months of negotiations.

On the flip side, Perpetual rose 15.5 per cent to a six-month high of $17.90 before the wealth manager's shares were placed in a trading halt pending an announcement about a potential takeover offer.

In the heavyweight mining sector, South32 rose 9.7 per cent to a two-week high of $4.28 after the company said it would sell its aluminium businesses to Alcoa for up to $US5.6 billion ($8 billion).??

The assets include South32's majority stake in the bauxite mining and alumina refining operation in Western Australia known as Worsley Alumina, as well as operations in South Africa and Brazil.

The transaction will reposition South32 as a base metals company focused on copper, zinc, silver and lead.

Elsewhere in the sector, BHP rose 0.9 per cent to $59.92, Fortescue climbed 0.5 per cent to $19.24 and Rio Tinto dropped 1.0 per cent to $170.81.

The Australian dollar was trading for 68.90 US cents, from 68.77 US cents at 5pm on Tuesday.

ON THE ASX:

??The S&P/ASX200 on Wednesday fell 55.8 points, or 0.64 per cent, to 8,722.9

The broader All Ordinaries lost 54.8 points, or 0.61 per cent, to 8,931,4

The NZX 50 Lost -9.08 points (-0.07%) to 13601.42

[Morningstar with Dow Jones]:

U.S. stocks ended mixed. The DJIA was unchanged at 52,305.24, the S&P 500 fell 0.2% to 7,483.23 and the Nasdaq fell 0.7% to 26,040.03.

Among S&P 500 companies, the top three gainers were AppLovin Corp APP surging 9.58%, Coinbase Global Inc COIN jumped 8.93%, and Meta Platforms Inc META lifted 8.81%.

The biggest decliners were Corning Inc GLW which dropped 13.59%, KLA Corp KLAC fell 11.77%, and Teradyne Inc TER lost 11.68%.

Asia

Chinese shares closed higher. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.4% to 4,112.45 and the Shenzhen Composite Index added 0.4% to 2,851.81.

Hong Kong shares ended lower. The benchmark Hang Seng Index declined 0.6% to 22,881.02.

Japanese shares ended higher. The Nikkei Stock Average climbed 0.6% to 70,474.96.

India shares ended higher. The BSE SENSEX rose 0.6% to 76,922.64.

Europe

Stocks in the U.K. finished lower. The FTSE 100 Index declined 0.2% to 10,478.34. In Europe, shares closed mixed. The Germany's DAX climbed 0.2% to 25,040.28, and the France's CAC 40 slipped 0.8% to 8,337.29