The bank announced late on Tuesday it would hike its two- to five-year fixed mortgage rates despite the Reserve Bank cutting the Official Cash Rate a fortnight ago.
“Obviously there’s still a bit of digesting of what we expected. I suppose it’s still the prospect that they’re retaining some optionality, the Reserve Bank, through to February and to see how the economy goes,” Smith said.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean that Westpac are right. The Reserve Bank could well come out if things just plateaued and might decide we need one more trim, depending on how they view inflation.”
Gentrack led the market drop for most of the day, sliding 1.88% or 18c to $9.40 after two million shares changed hands on turnover worth $18.5m.
Smith said nothing specific was leading the sell-off and he expected it was flow-driven.
Elsewhere, property stocks such as Ryman Healthcare, Kiwi Property Group and Stride Property decreased.
Ryman fell 2.09% or 6c to $2.81, Kiwi Property eased 0.47% to $1.05 after 3.8m shares changed hands, while Stride was down 0.71% or 1c to $1.39.
“I suppose that’s the property market’s reaction in terms of the mortgage rates and borrowing rates. Not particularly positive for interest rate-sensitive stocks.”
Meanwhile, Infratil lost 2.05% or 24c, decreasing to $11.46, while Mainfreight was down 0.74% or 50c to $66.75.
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare also slid late in the day, declining 0.45% or 17c to $37.89 on turnover worth $21.1m.
In more positive news, Ebos Group shares lifted 1.57% or 43c to $27.87 on turnover worth $3m, and Contact Energy lifted 0.11% or 1c to $9.29.
Hallenstein Glasson also held its annual shareholder meeting in Christchurch, announcing that group sales have lifted by 13.8% over the first 18 weeks of the financial year.
The lift was largely driven by the Australian market, with chairman Warren Bell saying he expected the New Zealand market “to remain challenging, with cost-of-living pressures continuing to impact discretionary spend across the retail environment”.
Hallenstein Glasson’s share price lifted 3.02% or 28c to $9.56 on turnover worth $698,414.14.
International news
Wall Street stocks treaded water early on Tuesday local time as markets considered mixed earnings reports and traded cautiously ahead of a US Federal Reserve decision.
At the close, the Dow Jones finished down 0.38% to 47,560.29, the Nasdaq was up 0.13% to 23,576.49 and the S&P 500 was down 0.09% to 6840.51.
Among individual companies, Nvidia declined as markets took stock of US President Donald Trump’s announcement of an agreement with counterpart President Xi Jinping to export some artificial intelligence chips to China.
PepsiCo was little changed after announcing a push to reduce costs and lower food prices under a deal with activist shareholders at Elliot Investment Management.
– Additional reporting AFP
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.
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