“Most New Zealand households aren’t going on a spending spree this holiday season. They remain cautious about making big-ticket purchases for now – however, we are spending more in bars and restaurants,” the bank said.
On the housing front, the seasonally-adjusted REINZ House Price Index increased 0.2% in November, following October’s 0.4% fall. Sales volume was down 2% and days to sell increased from 46 to 48. Auckland house prices rose 0.6% in November.
“All up, we’d categorise the data as mixed, though consistent with a stabilisation in house prices, reinforcing our expectation for a recovery over 2025,” said ANZ Research.
In the United States, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell for the ninth successive day after declining 0.61% to 43,449.9 points. The S&P 500 was down 0.39% to 6050.61 points and Nasdaq Composite shed 0.32% to 20,109.06.
At home, Hallenstein Glasson collected 12c to $8.02, its highest price since listing in 1985. The transtasman retailer earlier told the market that sales for the first 18 weeks of the 2025 financial year had increased by 10.1%.
Matt Goodson, managing director of Salt Management Funds, said Hallenstein executes extremely well even with a challenging backdrop in the retail sector. “At the end of the day, it is a very good retailer and doesn’t need to take fashion range risks.”
Mercury Energy increased 18.5c or 3.11% to $6.13 after confirming the construction of the first wind farm in Northland, with full generation by the end of 2026. The $287m Kaiwaikawe project near Dargaville is part of Mercury’s $1 billion commitment to new renewables over two years.
The new wind farm with 12 turbines will generate 221GWh a year, enough renewable electricity to power 27,000 homes, and construction will start in January.
Ebos Group, falling 90c or 2.42% to $36.25, and Fisher and Paykel Healthcare, shedding 39c to $37.85, led the market down.
Freightways declined 33c or 3.06% to $10.47; Meridian eased 9c to $5.65; Skellerup was down 12c or 2.29% to $5.11; Summerset shed 16c to $12.69; Winton Land fell 11c or 5.58% to $1.86; and Restaurant Brands was down 20c or 4.85% to $3.92.
Port of Tauranga eased 10c to $6.50; Seeka was down 8c or 2.48% to $3.15; Third Age Health fell 9c or 3.85% to $2.25; Smartpay shed 2.5c or 3.68% to 65.5c; Bremworth was down 1.5c or 3.9% to 37c and Blackpearl declined 7c or 5.69% to $1.16.
Ryman Healthcare was up 10c or 2.33% to $4.40; Fletcher Building added 5c or 1.77% to $2.87; Sanford gained 7c to $4.24; and Channel Infrastructure collected 8c or 4.42% to $1.89.
Santana Minerals increased 3.5c or 7.07% to 53c; AFT Pharmaceuticals improved 5c or 1.82% to $2.80; TradeWindow gained 0.8c or 4.17% to 20c; and Savor was up 2c or 8.7% to 25c.
In the property sector, Investore rose 6c or 5.56% to $1.14; Kiwi declined 3.5c to $13.04; and Property for Industry was down 4.5c or 2.05% to $2.145.
Wine exporters Delegat Group was down 6c to $5.04, and Foley increased 6c or 11.54% to 58c.
Air New Zealand, up 0.5c to 56c, reported a steady month of activity with 1.3m passengers carried compared with 1.28m in November last year. Domestic passengers slipped 1.2% from 882,000 to 871,000; the Tasman Pacific route was slightly ahead with 297,000 passengers compared with 290,000; and long haul increased 7.3% from 126,000 to 136,000.
Radius Residential Care, up 1.6c or 9.3% to 18.8c, will begin an on-market buy-back programme of up to 2m shares or 0.7%. Radius said the buy-back reflects its confidence in growth opportunities and the view that the company’s shares are undervalued.
