Pacific Edge's plunge helps NZX50 to lowest level in 10 weeks

On its darkest day of trading in two decades, Pacific Edge ended well below its February 2004 price of 14.9c. It closed the day with a fall of 38.6 or 77.98% to 10.9c after coming out of a trading halt and seeing 25.4 million of its shares worth $2.81m being traded.

Pacific Edge listed at 25c a share in late November 2002 – 15c was paid upfront and 10c deferred to September 2003 – and it had a market capitalisation of $14.8m; it is now $88.33m.

Ebos Group, which has lost its $1.9 billion a year supply contract with Chemist Warehouse, led the market down for the second day running. The S&P/NZX 50 index declined 122.94 points or 1.03% to 11,759.15 – its lowest level in nearly 10 weeks after sitting at 11,771.27 on March 28.

There were 64 gainers and 71 decliners over the whole market with 54.07m shares worth $141.84m changing hands.