{"id":338826,"date":"2026-03-20T08:19:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T08:19:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/338826\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T08:19:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T08:19:20","slug":"nzx-drops-2-as-oil-shock-fears-send-markets-tumbling-market-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/338826\/","title":{"rendered":"NZX drops 2% as oil-shock fears send markets tumbling \u2013 Market close"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Australian S&P\/ASX 200 Index was down 1.73% to 8490.8 points at 6pm NZ time; the Japanese Nikkei 225 had fallen 3.02% to 53,573.23; the Hong Kong Hang Seng had declined 1.66% to 25,592.99; and the South Korean Kospi had decreased 2.32% to 5787.37.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bit ugly out there, and many of our leading stocks had sharp falls,\u201d said Jeremy Sullivan, investment adviser with Hamilton Hindin Greene.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t helped by weaker-than-expected GDP data, and at least that decreases the chance of interest rate hikes with a weaker economic recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brent crude oil reached its highest level since the conflict began, trading at US$112 ($192) a barrel at 6pm NZ time and up 4.35% for the day. The price did hit an intraday high of $116 on March 9 before falling back to $86.<\/p>\n

Sullivan said there were reports of an attack on the world\u2019s biggest LNG plant, jointly owned by the Iranians and Qataris.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf oil and gas assets are considered legitimate military targets, then you can\u2019t just turn them on again when the war ends.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the issues is the way New Zealand accounts for the fuel price based on replacement cost. If a batch costs US$50 a barrel and after draining half of the resources the next batch is $100, then the blended cost is $75. And so, it continues.<\/p>\n

\u201cPetrol prices will tick up at the pump<\/a>s, and the Government is talking about targeted timely fuel subsidies for people in need,\u201d Sullivan said.<\/p>\n

GDP up in December quarter<\/p>\n

Gross domestic product (GDP) increased 0.2% in the December quarter<\/a>, below the 0.5% growth forecast by the Reserve Bank and the 0.9% rise record in the September quarter.<\/p>\n

ANZ Research said the weaker-than-expected GDP gives the Reserve Bank a little more latitude to look through the near-term inflationary impact of the oil shock and focus on the potential medium-term implications.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile annual average growth is likely to be lower than otherwise in 2026, we don\u2019t think it\u2019ll go negative.\u201d<\/p>\n

US moves<\/p>\n

Wall Street had another sell-off, despite the Federal Reserve keeping its cash rate unchanged at 3.5-3.75% and signalling one interest rate cut this year, though \u201cthe \u201cimplications of developments in the Middle East for the US economy are uncertain\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a new low for the year after falling 1.63% to 46,225.15 points; the S&P 500 was down 1.36% to 6624.7; and the Nasdaq Composite declined 1.46% to 22,152.42.<\/p>\n

Local stocks<\/p>\n

At home, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare declined $1.46 or 3.77% to $37.23 on trade worth $20.6m; Meridian Energy was down 16c or 2.84% to $5.47; Auckland International Airport fell 29c or 3.44% to $8.13 on trade worth $25.21m; and Infratil eased 13c to $10.94 \u2013 the biggest local stocks on market capitalisation.<\/p>\n

Ebos Group fell 65c or 2.91% to $21.5; a2 Milk shed 31.5c or 2.71% to $11.32; Freightways was down 21c to $13.08; Mainfreight decreased 90c to $60.40; and Gentrack declined 38c or 5.07% to $7.12.<\/p>\n

Other decliners were Contact Energy down 11c to $9.24; Spark shedding 4c or 1.82% to $2.16; Summerset decreasing 42c or 4.26% to $9.43; T&G Global falling 11c or 4.45% to $2.36; NZX easing 3.5c or 2.54% to $1.45; and Serko down 7.5c or 4.03% to $1.785.<\/p>\n

Turners Automotive rose 33c or 3.98% to $8.63 after upgrading its full-year gross profit to around $63m, up from $60m, and approaching the previous profit target of $65m in the 2028 financial year.<\/p>\n

Turners said summer trading had been positive, with strong vehicle sales volumes and an improvement in vehicle margins in the auto retail division. Finance lending activity also performed well, with January and February delivering several new lending records while maintaining credit quality.<\/p>\n

Among other gainers, PGG Wrightson increased 11c or 5.24% to $2.21; Sky TV added 11c or 3.5% to $3.25; and 2 Cheap Cars improved 1.5c or 2.56% to 60c.<\/p>\n

In the mining sector, Santana Minerals was down 3.5% or 3.59% to 94c; Rua Gold declined 10c or 5.56% to $1.70; and Minerals Exploration decreased 0.007c or 3.74% to 18c.<\/p>\n

Stay ahead with the latest market moves, corporate updates, and economic insights by subscribing to our Business newsletter<\/a> \u2013 your essential weekly round-up of all the business news you need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Australian S&P\/ASX 200 Index was down 1.73% to 8490.8 points at 6pm NZ time; the Japanese Nikkei…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45859,806,138,651,28796,10668,38403,28164,14724,3499,1943,225,220,11692,111,139,69,13979,181307,3333,173328,1436,801,14775,13743,71780,44439,95298,102,80],"class_list":["post-338826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-45859","tag-as","tag-business","tag-close","tag-drops","tag-economic","tag-falling","tag-fears","tag-further","tag-growth","tag-inflation","tag-market","tag-markets","tag-nearly","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-nzx","tag-oilshock","tag-price","tag-reigniting","tag-rise","tag-rising","tag-send","tag-sent","tag-sharemarkets","tag-slowing","tag-tumbling","tag-with","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}