FPH, the market’s biggest stock, finished at 10c down at $38.90.
Swiss wealth management giant UBS Group AG raised its stake in vehicle hardware firm Eroad to 5.05% from 2.18% and raised its holding in cinema software company Vista Group to 5.0% from 4.01%.
Eroad closed at $1.21, down 2c, while Vista dropped 11c to $2.51.
Regal Partners Funds Management – an ASX-listed, specialist alternative investment manager – increased its stake in utility software specialist Gentrack to 9.79% from 8.44%, the stock finishing steady at $8.70.
Investment company Infratil continued to ease – dropping by 18c to $11.42 – after being firm earlier in the week.
Fletcher Building – one of the market’s key cyclical stocks – firmed 1c to $3.81.
Hamilton Hindin Greene investment adviser Jeremy Sullivan said volumes were typically light for this time of year but he expected activity levels to increase next week when institutional investors return from the Christmas-New Year break.
He noted signals from US markets were mixed, the S&P 500 and the Dow ending lower, while the Nasdaq was slightly firmer as the market digested US President Donald Trump’s latest announcements on defence spending and housing.
“Trump came out with some policies that spooked some investors in the defence stocks – saying that the US will not permit dividends or share buybacks for any of the contractors,” Sullivan said.
Similarly, investors were unsettled by Trump’s plan to prevent investment companies such as Blackstone from investing in residential real estate.
Since the close, Trump also said he wanted to increase the US military budget to US$1.5 trillion, significantly higher than the $901 billion approved by Congress for 2026, which met with scepticism from budget experts.
Any such increase in the military budget would require congressional approval.
“Those defence stocks – which were down overnight our time – will likely bounce back tomorrow,” Sullivan said.
Across the Tasman, the bid for BlueScope A$30 share bid by SGH and Steel Dynamics for BlueScope deal was knocked back for being too low.
BlueScope, which owns 15.8% of Steel and Tube (down 1.5c at 65c) said the offer “very significantly undervalued” the company.
“There’s always the potential that the suitor may come back with, with a higher price, which is certainly what the Bluescope shareholders will be hoping for,” Sullivan said.
“So there was a little bit of corporate action across the Tasman, but it was relatively quiet day today on our market.”
Among the smaller issues, Green Cross Health shares fell 7c to $1.10 on light volume.
Cash-strapped manuka honey company Comvita was weaker earlier in the session but ended the day square at 51c.
Move Logistics dropped 2c or 6.35% to close at 29.5c.
Meanwhile, NZX data showed the total capitalisation of the market came to $246.9 billion in December, 56.1% of GDP while derivative trading gained 232.2% in the year to date to 815,494 lots.
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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