NZ sharemarket edges down as investors mull over last week’s data

The S&P/NZX 50 Index fell 49.3 points, or 0.4%, to 11,800.040. Turnover on the entire market was a very light $74.9 million with 50 stocks rising and 75 falling.

Hamilton Hindin Greene’s Grant Davies said it had been a quiet day in the US on Friday which had bled through into NZ’s market on Monday, with the New York Stock Exchange due to be closed overnight for Juneteenth, the annual commemoration of the end of slavery in the US.

GDP data for the March quarter released last week showing NZ was in technical recession and further data also showed the economy was limping.

Last Thursday's Stats NZ balance of payments data series showed the current account was in deficit to the tune of $33.03 billion in the 12 months ended March 31, down from the $34.94b shortfall at the end of December, or 8.5% of gross domestic product (GDP).