MARKET WRAP: NZ shares fall on $100m Pushpay share selloff

New Zealand shares fell today, as Pushpay emerged from its trading halt and co-founder Elliot Crowther's sale of his entire stake in the payments software company.

The NZX50 index sank 111 point to 8,863.24, on turnover of $242 million.

Pushpay closed down 24c, or 5.5%, to $4.13. The stock was put in a trading halt yesterday afternoon as Mr Crowther announced his resignation from the company, effective Thursday, and the sale of his 9.03% stake, underwritten at $4.04  per share against the pre-halt trading price of $4.37. His stake was valued at $108m ahead of the halt. It sold for $100m or $4.04 per share.

The NZX and ASX-listed company also says it has now abandoned its goal to list in the US by the end of this calendar year.

Pushpay’s trading resumed at 3pm today and reached 26.8m in volume, the bulk of which was the sale of Mr Crother's shares and those of trusts he controlled.

“We've seen quite a lot of selling across the market today to raise funds for that particular build and as a result you’ve seen the NZX50 is down,” Hamilton Hindin Greene investment adviser Tom McBride says

Contact Energy fell 12c to $5.83 and Meridian Energy dropped 6c to $3.10.

“The gentailers were sold down slightly — that may have something to do with the institutions getting involved with the Pushpay deal,” says Mr McBride.

A2 Milk sank 18c to $11.51, while its supplier Synlait Milk fell 5c to $10.65.

Spark was down 12c to $3.75. Steel & Tube declined 3c to $1.64.

In the week ahead, the Global Dairy Trade (GDT) auction will release its results tomorrow and on Thursday the New Zealand GDP growth data will come out.

More US trade tariffs
US President Donald Trump today threatened to impose a 10% tariff on $200 billion of Chinese goods, asking his trade representative to identify products to be subject to the retaliatory tax.

“However, when the tariffs are implemented is anyone’s guess at this stage — if you look at the previous round of tariffs, on around $50b worth of Chinese goods, they don’t start to roll on until July 6,” says Mr McBride.