A bleak August for the sharemarket ends on a slight uplift

The S&P/NZX 50 Index went as low as 11,455.71 in the morning before recovering strongly to close at 11,554.48, up 33.36 points or 0.29%. It meant the index was down nearly 4.15% for the month – the previous biggest slide was 3.9% in June last year.

The session was extended for the quarterly rebalancing of the MSCI indices, and in the flurry of late trading, 81.46 million shares worth $368.39m changed hands. There were 76 gainers and 57 decliners on the main board.

Genesis Energy, up 12.5c or 5.19% to $2.535, was removed from the MSCI index, and 18.6m shares worth $47.02m were crossed. 

Spark, up 6c to $5.075, and Summerset Group, gaining 35c or 3.54% to $10.25, had their weightings reduced on trade worth $35.72m and $5.9m, respectively.