Local fall

Market leader Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, declining $2.79 or 7.08% to $36.61, dominated the trading with $46.36m worth of its shares changing hands.

Shane Solly, portfolio manager with Harbour Asset Management, said Friday the 13th had been a bit scary for the market.

“This is quite unusual for the (more defensive) New Zealand market, but there’s been a lot of red on the trading screen.

“The AI apocalypse is continuing. There was general sell-off in risk assets globally, and freight forwarding stocks got a hit [Mainfreight was down $1.42 or 2.24% to $62, and Freightways decreased 37c or 2.48% to $14.52].”

Solly said freight forwarding is now the fourth sector, along with legal, real estate and wealth management, that has seen the entry of AI user models.

“It’s a reminder of the artificial intelligence uncertainty.

”Commentators in the US have said the AI build-out threatens to disrupt the business models of whole industries, or at least eat away at profit margins, and raise unemployment.

Overseas

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.34% to 49,451.98; the S&P 500 declined 1.57% to 6832.76; and the Nasdaq Composite fell 2.03% to 22,597.15.

Across the Tasman, the S&P/ASX 200 Index had fallen 1.38% to 8918.8 points at 5.45pm NZ time.

Solly said the fall by Fisher & Paykel Healthcare can be attributed to talk that Trump may still walk away from the US-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement, which would affect manufacturing in Mexico for Fisher & Paykel.

Auckland International Airport was down 19c or 2.21% to $8.42; Gentrack fell 42c or 5.03% to $6.78; a2 Milk decreased 18c to $10; and Port of Tauranga eased 15c or 1.86% to $7.90.

Ebos Group declined 88c or 3.54% to $24, having steadily fallen from $41.25 on August 21. Fletcher Building was down 10c or 2.68% to $3.63, and Mercury Energy decreased 12c or 1.86% to $6.33.

Ryman Healthcare was down a further 10c or 3.69% to $2.61; NZME decreased 2.5c or 2.19% to $1.115; Briscoe shed 10c or 2.13% to $4.60; and Santana Minerals dropped 4.56c or 3.75% to $1.155.

In the battered technology sector, Serko decreased 17c or 7.17% to $2.20; Vista Group shed 6c or 3.23% to $$1.80; Eroad was down 6c or 6.19% to 91c; and ikeGPS fell 11c or 10.58% to 93c.

Westpac was down $1.29 or 2.71% to $47.60 despite reporting a solid first-quarter net profit of A$1.9 billion, up 6%. Deposits grew by A$12b and lending by A$22b. Net interest margin was down one basis point to 1.94%.

SkyCity, losing 3.5c or 3.95% to 85c, has appointed Blair Woodbury as chief financial officer. He previously worked at telecommunications company Devoli and Sky TV.

Power surges

Meridian Energy, down 3c to $5.76, told the market it was in “a really solid position as we move toward autumn” after a January of rain and high lake levels.

In the month to February 9, national hydro storage decreased from 115% to 92% of the historical average, with the South Island down to 88% and the North Island 117%. Meridian’s retail sales volumes in January were 2.9% higher than the same month last year.

Meridian said extended periods of spilling in the Waitaki and Waiau catchments have ended, driving wholesale electricity prices to remarkably low levels in January – with the average generation sales price being just over $1 per megawatt hour.

South Port NZ increased 30c or 3.37% to $9.20 after reporting a record half-year result based on a 17.8% rise in cargo volumes to 1.99 million tonnes and a recovery in the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter activity.

Revenue for the six months ending December was up 17.6% to $34.8m, and net profit rose 46.8% to $8.45m. Southport is paying a dividend of 8.5c a share on March 10.

T & G Global was up 2c to $2.76 after increasing its full-year gross profit forecast to $20m-$23m, compared with a gross loss of $6.83m in the 2024 financial year.