Sharemarket ends week down, bucking upbeat trend across Asia

The sharemarket bucked the upward trend across Asia to end the week lower as heavyweight stocks and property weakness weighed on the benchmark.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index fell 0.3%, or 37.691 points, to 11,065.15. On the wider market, 69 stocks fell, while 72 gained.

‘‘It’s been a strong day in Asia, partly driven by a good offshore market performance from the US,’’ said Craigs Investment Partners investment adviser Peter McIntyre. ‘‘We are the only bourse in AsiaPacific indices that are trading down today.

‘‘Some of our bigger stocks were weaker today, dragging the index down.’’

Medical device maker Fisher & Paykel Healthcare slipped 0.3% to $19.50, transport and logistics firm Mainfreight shed 0.6% to $75.51, Contact Energy fell 1.2% to $7.37, specialty milk marketer The a2 Milk Company dropped 0.6% to $4.69, retirement village operator Ryman

Healthcare fell 2.4% to $10.10, Fletcher Building slipped 0.6% to $5.43, and telecommunications company Spark slipped 0.3% to $4.695.

The real estate sector was the weakest component on the benchmark, on expectations that property prices would decline in an environment of rising interest rates.

Stride fell 1.2% to $1.69, Goodman Property Trust fell 2.2% to $2.03, Precinct Properties fell 1.1% to $1.345, Vital Healthcare Property Trust fell 1.5% to $2.93, Kiwi Property Group fell 0.5% to $1.005, Property for Industry fell 1.2% to $2.415, and Argosy Property fell 0.8% to $1.225,

DGL Group dropped 4.4% to $3.06 after the chemical company announced that it would delist from the NZX in favour of the ASX because its board believed there was no benefit from remaining listed in New Zealand.

However, NZX chief executive Mark Peterson said the move was ‘‘a clear reaction’’ to events that transpired after DGL chief executive and founder Simon Henry made comments in an interview with the NBR about My Food Bag brand ambassador Nadia Lim, describing the celebrity chef as ‘‘a little bit of Eurasian fluff’’.

Following Henry’s comments DGL was blacklisted by managed funds, and DGL’s board launched a culture review into the company.

Cinema software company Vista Group International rose 6.2% to $1.54 after the company told shareholders at its annual meeting on Thursday that it had had a good start to the year and was tracking ahead of target.

ERoad fell 7.4% to $2.52. This followed an 8.7% drop on Thursday after the transport software company reported an annual loss of $9.6m, after one-off costs following its acquisition of Coretex.

Asian shares gained as investors cheered a strong set of earnings from retailers that has sent US shares higher. Benchmarks were rising in early trading, including in Japan, China, Australia and South Korea. Shares of Alibaba and Baidu have surged after they reported better than expected results, easing some concerns about the negative impact from restrictions to curb Covid-19 infections.

Wall Street ended broadly higher on Thursday after seven straight weeks of declines, the longest such stretch since 2001. Roughly 90% of the stocks in the S&P 500 rose, with technology companies, banks and retailers driving much of the rally.

The real estate sector was the weakest component.