Craigs Investment Partners investment director Mark Lister said the local market had taken its lead from Wall Street after early optimism surrounding the end of the 43-day US Government shutdown gradually wore off.
The US closure has left investors with little economic data to form views on the state of the US economy, he said.
“Now, no one really feels like they know where the US economy is at with any certainty, and the US Federal Reserve is in a bit of a bind heading into its December meeting,” Lister said.
In addition, the ongoing debate on whether AI-related stocks had run too hard, too fast, was affecting sentiment.
Transport and logistics firm Mainfreight gave up some of its post-result gains, ending 92c or 1.34% down at $67.58, but was still up 16% over the week after the market responded to a positive earnings outlook from the company.
Brokers Forsyth Barr upgraded Mainfreight to “outperform” from “neutral” based on the company’s positive outlook.
“The first half was characterised by margin pressure across most operations, but this eased over the final two months as revenue growth accelerated,” the broker said in a note.
“This underlying business improvement is likely to continue into the second half, driven predominantly by accelerating Australasian activity reflecting new business wins and cyclical green shoots.”
Infratil, which also reported this week, dropped 19c to $11.78.
“Of the two big heavyweights to report this week, Mainfreight was the one that everyone liked, but Infratil didn’t get the same response, falling 4% over the week,” Lister said.
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, the market’s biggest stock, finished 39c down at $37.69.
Meridian Energy, which holds an investor day on Thursday, fell 5c to $5.83.
Elsewhere, transport technology company Eroad lost 13c or 8% to $1.50 while cinema software firm Vista dropped 12c to $2.58.
Among the smaller stocks, honey exporter Comvita closed 6.5c down at 53c after an 80c a share scheme of arrangement from Florenz failed to garner enough support from shareholders.
The loss-making Comvita said it had notified its banking syndicate to request further support to provide time to recapitalise the business.
Looking ahead, a slew of annual and first-half results are due next week, starting with Sanford (full-year) and Serko (half-year) on Tuesday.
There are also a number of annual meetings, including for Precinct, KMD Brands and a2 Milk.
Jamie Gray is an Auckland-based journalist, covering the financial markets, the primary sector and energy. He joined the Herald in 2011.
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