Big news drive big moves on sharemarket

When the stocks produced good and bad news, much of it surprising, The S&P/NZX 50 Index was down as much as half a percent, but it closed at 11,864.12 down 16.77 points or 0.14%.

There were 87 gainers and 48 decliners over the whole market on volumes of 37.21 million share transactions worth $203.03m, with Ebos and A2 Milk soaking up much of the trading.

The biggest shock came when Ebos, the seventh largest local stock on capitalisation and Australasia's leading health products distributor, told the market it will lose the contract to supply the Chemist Warehouse from the end of June next year. The contract is worth $1.9 billion in annual revenue.

Ebos led the market down, plunging $4.08 or 9.84% to $37.38 on trade worth $45.92m. Ebos lost out on the contract to smaller rival Sigma Healthcare which will supply pharmaceuticals and consumer goods to Chemist Warehouse for five years.