By Paul McBeth
June 4 (BusinessDesk) - The S/NZX 50 Index dropped below the 10,000 for the first time in almost a month, as the local market caught up with
Australia's slide yesterday.
The NZX50 sank 169.77 points, or 1.7 percent, to 9,948.22 at 1.30pm, on turnover of about $55.6 million. Of the top 50
stocks, 29 fell, 15 rose and six were unchanged.
A2 Milk led the market lower, sliding to a two-month, and was recently down 9.7 percent at $14.27. Synlait Milk, which
supplies A2, fell 3.8 percent to $8.53.
"We are playing catch up with the Australian markets, which yesterday lost 1.25 percent," said Grant Williamson, a
director at Hamilton Hindin Greene. The S/ASX 200 Index was recently up 0.3 percent today.
Fletcher Building fell 1.7 percent to $5.16, recovering from a sharper sell-off in early trading after the country's
biggest construction company and said it's completed the sale of Formica earlier than anticipated, and lowered its
annual earnings guidance.
Software developers Pushpay Holdings and Gentrack Group were both down 3.4 percent at $3.66 and $5.10 respectively and
Sky Network Television hit a new low, falling 1.7 percent to $1.18.
Summerset Group rose 0.4 percent to $5.56 after announcing plans for two new retirement villages, one in Whangarei and
one in Cambridge. It expects to spend $290 million developing the sites. Ryman Healthcare edged up 0.1 percent to
$11.59, Metlifecare rose 0.5 percent to $4.49, and Arvida Gropu increased 0.8 percent to $1.31.
Freighways rose 1 percent to $8.17, posting the biggest gain in early afternoon trading.
Spark New Zealand was the most active stock on a volume of 1.2 million shares. It fell 1.8 percent to $3.745.