10 Jun 2014

NZ sharemarket down on Tuesday

6:31 pm on 10 June 2014

New Zealand shares were slightly weaker on Tuesday, the benchmark Top 50 Index shedding 8 points to 5179.

Hamilton, Hinden, Green director Grant Williamson said there was some negative news from some companies.

He said Nuplex came out with a reduced earnings guidance, although the stock seemed to be holding up reasonably well.

Mr Williamson said the company has mainly been blaming its Australian operation which is an indication of how weak the Australian economy is at the moment.

He said New Zealand Oil & Gas has had problems with its current drilling which will add to the overall cost of what they are doing. Mr Williamson said it's not the first time that has happened which will be disappointing for the company's shareholders.

Mr Williamson said Fisher & Paykel Healthcare has had a very good run although it eased a little on Tuesday.

Nuplex shares fell 14 cents to $3.22, shares in New Zealand Oil & Gas dropped 3.5 cents to 78 cents and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare shares eased 4 cents to $4.67.

NZ dollar slightly weaker against trading partners

The New Zealand dollar was slightly weaker against the currencies of all the country's major trading partners on Tuesday.

Rankin Treasury Advisory managing director Derek Rankin said the market is waiting for the Reserve Bank's monetary policy statement on Thursday.

"And the debate is really around whether or not the Reserve Bank will be raising interest rates, whether or not they'll be on hold and more importantly what they'll say about future interest rate increases."

Mr Rankin said most of the market believes interest rates will be raised by a quarter, but some in the market think that because of the decline in the New Zealand dollar and the decline in commodity, dairy and timber prices that the Reserve Bank may soften its stance a little.

"We don't think that, we think that the Reserve Bank is concerned about migratory pressures, we think that the construction numbers have been particularly strong, Christchurch rebuild going on and construction in Auckland as well is quite strong, so we think that all of those things will mean that they'll want to stick with their path of raising interest rates."

At about 5pm on Tuesday, the Kiwi was trading at 84.97 US cents, 90.83 Australian cents, 50.54 British pence, 0.6253 euro, 86.93 yen and 5.3 renminbi.