Market Announcements
Market Summary
The New Zealand sharemarket suffered one of its biggest falls in five years on Friday as the emergence of artificial intelligence tools for business practices continued to unnerve investors. Following another sell-off on Wall Street, and blue-chip stocks here taking a dive, the S&P/NZX 50 Index slumped 333.30 points or 2.46% to 13,198.18 – its lowest level since early September last year. The fall surpassed the 2.3% drop on April 22 last year when President Donald Trump introduced liberation day and the US tariffs. The biggest single-day fall over the past five years was 3.3% on Feb 24, 2022. The NZX index has now fallen nearly 2.9% so far this year. There were 107 decliners and just 30 gainers on the main board with turnover reaching 29.5 million shares worth $171.4m.
Market leader Fisher and Paykel Healthcare, declining $2.79 or 7.08% to $36.61, dominated the trading with $46.36m worth of its shares changing hands. There was general sell-off in risk assets globally and freight forwarding stocks got a hit (Mainfreight was down $1.42 or 2.24% to $62, and Freightways decreased 37c or 2.48% to $14.52).
Commentators in the US have said the AI build-out threatens to disrupt the business models of whole industries, or at least eat away at profit margins, and raise unemployment.
Auckland International Airport was down 19c or 2.21% to $8.42; Gentrack fell 42c or 5.03% to $6.78; a2 Milk decreased 18c to $10; and Port of Tauranga eased 15c or 1.86% to $7.90. Ebos Group declined 88c or 3.54% to $24, having steadily fallen from $41.25 on Aug 21. Fletcher Building was down 10c or 2.68% to $3.63, and Mercury Energy decreased 12c or 1.86% to $6.33.
Ryman Healthcare was down a further 10c or 3.69% to $2.61; NZME decreased 2.5c or 2.19% to $1.11; Briscoe shed 10c or 2.13% to $4.60; and Santana Minerals dropped 4.5c or 3.75% to $1.15. In the battered technology sector, Serko decreased 17c or 7.17% to $2.20; Vista Group shed 6c or 3.23% to $$1.80; Eroad was down 6c or 6.19% to 91c; and ikeGPS fell 11c or 10.58% to 93c.
Westpac was down $1.29 or 2.64% to $47.60 despite reporting a solid first quarter net profit of A$1.9 billion, up 6%. Deposits grew by A$12b and lending by A$22b. Net interest margin was down one basis point to 1.94%. SkyCity, losing 3.5c or 3.95% to 85c, has appointed Blair Woodbury as chief financial officer. He previously worked at telecommunications company Devoli and Sky TV.
Meridian Energy, down 3c to $5.76, told the market it was in “a really solid position as we move toward autumn” following a January of rain and high lake levels. In the month to Feb 9 national hydro storage decreased from 115% to 92% of historical average, with the South Island down to 88% and North Island 117%. Meridian’s retail sales volumes in January were 2.9% higher than the same month last year. Meridian said extended periods of spilling in the Waitaki and Waiau catchments have ended, driving wholesale electricity prices to remarkably low levels in January – with the average generation sales price being just over $1 per megawatt hour.
South Port NZ increased 30c or 3.37% to $9.20 after reporting a record half-year result based on a 17.8% rise in cargo volumes to 1.99m tonnes and a recovery in Tiwai Point aluminium smelter activity. Revenue for the six months ending December was up 17.6% to $34.8m and net profit rose 46.8% to $8.45m. Southport is paying a dividend of 8.5c a share on March 10.
T & G Global was up 2c to $2.76 after increasing its full-year gross profit forecast to $20m-$23m, compared with a gross loss of $6.83m in the 2024 financial year.
Source: Business Desk
Australian Market Report
Ahead of the local open SPI futures were 49 points higher at 8943.
- close [Morningstar with AAP]: Australia's share market has had its best week in nine months, despite a bleak final session as jitters around artificial intelligence disruption hit risk sentiment.
The S&P/ASX200 fell 125.9 points on Friday, down 1.39 per cent, to 8,917.6, as the broader All Ordinaries lost 143 points, or 1.54 per cent, to 9,138.8.
After nearing an all-time peak on Thursday, the top-200 has sold off sharply as global equities slide due to fears around artificial intelligence disruption and investment.
The disruption came after US freight stocks tanked on news of an AI application - from former karaoke machine company Algorhythm Holdings - claiming it could scale freight volumes by 400 per cent without extra staff, sparking concerns about potential impacts to other sectors.
"You've got these developing products ... which are changing the game, and it's moving so fast the average person in markets just can't conceptualise the speed of this and what this means for businesses," Pepperstone head of research Chris Weston told AAP.
"When we can't understand the landscape in a year's time, let alone five years' time, that's going to cause volatility, because we can't price certainty."
Despite the late slump, it was the top-200's best week since May 2025, up 2.4 per cent with solid performances from the co-heavyweight financials and raw materials sectors.
With the exception of utilities and retail stocks, it was all red for the segments on Friday, with IT (-5.1 per cent) and health care (-4.0 per cent) hit hard.
The impact on the local sector came from WiseTech Global's more than 10 per cent drop, linked to the logistics shake up sparked by Algorhythm Holdings.
Cochlear was the big stand out in a brutal day for health care stocks, the hearing device manufacturer's share price plummeting almost 19 per cent to a three-year low on weaker-than-expected earnings.
Local miners were under pressure, with basic materials down two per cent, tracking with similar slips in BHP and Fortescue, while Rio bucked the trend with a modest advance.
Gold stocks were a sea of red, despite the precious metal reclaiming some overnight losses during the session to trade hands at $US4,973 ($A7,030) an ounce.
Financials faded 0.8 per cent with three of the big four banks trading lower after a mixed earnings result from Westpac.
ANZ crept to a second record high of $40.89 in as many days after its stellar Thursday result and a subsequent upgrade from Morgan Stanley.
Energy stocks tumbled two per cent as oil prices fell dipped for a second session as the International Energy Agency cut its demand forecast for 2026.
Utilities were the only real good news story, up 3.4 per cent on Friday and 9.4 per cent for the week, supported by strong earnings results from Origin and AGL and risk-off tailwinds.
Consumer discretionary stocks fell 2.4 per cent in a broad-based sell-off, with furniture trader Nick Scali underperforming as its value dropped by more than a fifth after missing expectations on local sales.
Shipbuilder Austal fell a similar amount after admitting an accounting mistake had overstated its 2026 earnings guidance by about 17 per cent, taking out the top-200's worst performance on Friday.
The Australian dollar is buying 70.68 US cents, down from 71.24 US cents on Thursday at 5pm, slipping as US Federal Reserve rhetoric turned hawkish this week, despite markets' narrowing bets on further interest rate hikes at home.
Rates markets now price a 80 per cent chance of a Reserve Bank interest rate hike in May.
ON THE ASX:
The S&P/ASX200 fell 125.9 points, or 1.39 per cent, to 8,917.6
The broader All Ordinaries lost 143 points, or 1.54 per cent, to 9,138.8
The NZX 50 Lost -14.66 points (-0.11%) to 13183.52
Companies commencing Ex-Dividend Trading Today (ASX 300):
Humm Group Limited
Overseas Market Report
[Morningstar with Dow Jones]:
U.S. stocks ended mixed. The DJIA rose 0.1% to 49,500.93, the S&P 500 was unchanged at 6,836.17 and the Nasdaq fell 0.2% to 22,546.67.
Among S&P 500 companies, the top three gainers were Coinbase Global Inc COIN surging 16.46%, Applied Materials Inc AMAT jumped 8.08%, and DexCom Inc DXCM lifted 7.59%.
The biggest decliners were Constellation Brands Inc STZ which dropped 8.09%, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd NCLH fell 7.44%, and NVR Inc NVR lost 7.35%.
Asia
Chinese shares closed lower. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index slipped 1.3% to 4,082.07 and the Shenzhen Composite Index slipped 1.1% to 2,680.39.
Hong Kong shares ended lower. The benchmark Hang Seng Index declined 1.7% to 26,567.12.
Japanese shares ended lower. The Nikkei Stock Average fell 1.2% to 56,941.97.
India shares ended lower. The BSE SENSEX dropped 1.3% to 82,626.76.
Europe
Stocks in the U.K. finished higher. The FTSE 100 Index gained 0.4% to 10,446.35. In Europe, shares closed mixed. The Germany's DAX climbed 0.3% to 24,914.88, and the France's CAC 40 fell 0.3% to 8,311.74
