New Zealand’s S&P/NZX 50 index joined a regional slump as the impact of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs rippled through financial markets and investors tried to gauge their impact.
The NZX50 dropped 184.67 points, or 1.4% to a six-week-low 12,810.32. Turnover was $182.4 million across the main board. Meanwhile, the kiwi dollar dropped to 55.43 US cents at 5pm in Auckland from 56.38 cents at 7am and 56.40 cents last week.
“The key thing is, Trump appears serious about the T word that he calls ‘the most beautiful word in the dictionary’,” ASB Bank chief economist Nick Tuffley said in a note. “More tariffs may come.”
That was part of a broader regional selloff as Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index declined 1.8% in late trading, Japan’s 225 index fell 2.8% and Singapore’s Straits Times Index decreased 0.3%.
F&P Healthcare led the local benchmark index lower, sinking 6.7% to $35.10 on a volume of 2 million. The medical device maker said it didn’t expect earnings to be hit in the current March year, with costs expected to increase in the 2026 financial year given the US accounts for about 43% of the firm’s revenue and of which 60% of US volumes are supplied from Mexico.
F&P Healthcare was the most sold NZX stock by Invest Direct clients – the old Jarden Direct – for the past two weeks.
Skellerup, the rubber goods maker which counts the US as its biggest market, dropped 2.4% to $4.97 while global logistics firm Mainfreight fell 2.1% to $70.49. Port of Tauranga declined 1.5% to $6.40.
Sky Network Television, which buys much of its broadcasting rights in US dollars, fell 1.8% to $2.75. The Australian Financial Review today reported that Rugby Australia is poised to sign a new broadcasting deal with Nine Entertainment that includes performance-based bonuses. Sky NZ is currently negotiating its deal with NZ Rugby.
Favourite buys
Spark New Zealand declined 2.1% to $2.85 on a volume of 3.3 million. The telecommunications group was the most bought NZX stock by Invest Direct clients last week.
The Smart US 500 exchange traded fund slipped 0.8% to $18.99. It was the most bought security by Sharesies clients last week and the eighth most bought NZX security by Invest Direct users.
SkyCity Entertainment Group declined 0.7% to $1.39 after settling a long-running casino duty dispute with the South Australian state Treasurer, paying A$38.1 million made up of extra duty, interest and costs.
Stock market operator NZX posted the biggest gain on the benchmark index, rising 2% to $1.51, while Auckland International Airport advanced 1.6% to $878 and Gentrack gained 1.4% to $12.89.
Fletcher Building increased 0.7% to $2.88 after appointing independent director Peter Crowley as chair and adding former Bunnings NZ chief Jacqui Coombes to its board. Acting chair Barbara Chapman will leave the board at the end of April.
Trading of Being AI was suspended after the firm’s two independent directors resigned from the board last week, leaving it outside the stock market operator’s listing rules.
Rakon was unchanged at 57 cents after restructuring its operations into two business units and rejigged its executive team with the departure of the long-serving Robinson brothers.
On the Catalist junior bourse, Mount Cook Alpine Salmon’s latest auction is poised to close at 36 cents, up from 20 cents in its previous trading window for wholesale and existing shareholders in April last year.
And mānuka oil product maker Mānuka Bioscience, which raised almost $2.5 million through an equity crowdfunding offer on the Snowball Effect platform in 2023, has been tipped into receivers, with Calibre Partners’ Neale Jackson and Daniel Stoneman appointed.
Reporting by Paul McBeth. Image from Curious News.