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MARKET CLOSE: NZ shares mixed in subdued trading as NZX suffers outage; Synlait falls

Monday 4th December 2017

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New Zealand shares edged lower in quiet trading as investors weighed up the mixed messages from Wall Street on Friday and NZX's trading platform suffered an outage late in the day. Synlait Milk declined ahead of an investor update this week. 

The S&P/NZX 50 Index slipped 3.96 points, or 0.05 percent, to 8,184.87. Within the index, 25 stocks gained, 18 declined, and seven were unchanged. Turnover was $77.3 million. 

Stock markets across Asia lacked direction after Wall Street dipped on Friday on news former US National Security Adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents and was cooperating with an investigation into Russian interference in last year's election. That eroded earlier optimism new tax legislation lowering the corporate rate will be passed into law. 

"There's not a lot to grasp from Friday night's announcements and people are waiting to see how offshore markets react to all of those developments," said Mark Lister, head of private wealth research at Craigs Investment Partners.

Trading was also hindered by an outage on NZX's platform with data issues affecting all vendors. The outage disrupted stocks, indices, futures and options trading, according to Reuters updates and was first reported at 3.26pm. As at 5.30pm there was still no estimated time for a resolution. NZX shares slipped 1.8 percent to $1.10. 

Synlait led the benchmark index lower, falling 2.8 percent to $7.19 ahead of an investor day on Friday. The milk processor has soared 138 percent so far this year, and Lister said investors will be looking for evidence the rally is justified. 

Lister said Fonterra Cooperative Group is holding an investor briefing on Thursday, and with the GlobalDairyTrade auction on Wednesday and a looming forecast farmgate payout review, dairy is high on investors' minds. Fonterra Shareholders' Fund units fell 1.3 percent to $6.32, while a2 Milk Co increased 0.1 percent to $8.30. 

Kiwi Property Group declined 2.2 percent, or 3 cents, to $1.34 after shedding rights to a 3.425 cents per share dividend. The property investor also launched an offer to raise $125 million selling seven-year bonds to repay bank debt. 

Summerset Group posted the biggest gain on the day, up 2.5 percent to $5.32. Port of Tauranga increased 1.4 percent to $4.81, Metro Performance Glass advanced 1.1 percent to 93 cents and Comvita rose 0.9 percent to $7.52. 

Contact Energy rose 0.6 percent to $5.48. US fund manager BlackRock issued a notice today saying it as no longer a substantial shareholder in the power company after last week's MSCI index reweighting. The fund manager reduced its stake to 2.4 percent from 5.4 percent. 

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, which was added to the MSCI index, fell 1.2 percent to $12.99. 

Among other market leaders, Auckland International Airport increased 0.8 percent to $6.50, Fletcher Building declined 1 percent to $6.92, Meridian Energy advanced 0.5 percent to $2.92, and Spark New Zealand declined 0.7 percent to $3.625. Xero fell 0.4 percent to $31.80. 

Outside the benchmark index, Gentrack gained 6.2 percent to $6.69 after announcing it had signed a "significant contract" with Npower in the UK to provide its Junifer billing system. 

(BusinessDesk)



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