NZ market peters out in slow start to year

The benchmark S&P/NZX 50 Index ended the three-day week down 0.2% as it fell 10.63 points, or 0.1%, to 11,748.48 today. Across the main board, 50 stocks fell and 71 rose, with 19.1 million shares changing hands on a turnover of $53.4m.

“The market’s driving in a fairly subdued start to the new year after a pretty blistering end in the last couple of months,” said Greg Smith, head of retail at Devon Funds Management.

“Volumes are still pretty low this week but will probably pick up next week as they normally do.”

Cinema software company Vista Group International accounted for the day’s biggest volume with 2.9m shares changing hands, almost all in a single trade at $1.60. That was a discount to the $1.66 market price and the stock rose 0.6% to $1.67.