The NZX 50 slipped 24 points, or 0.2%, to 13,537 in Tuesday morning trade, extending its losing streak to a fourth consecutive session and hovering at its lowest level since June 26. The decline mirrored overnight weakness on Wall Street, where chipmakers sold off following calls from several AI companies for an industry-wide slowdown.
Sentiment was cautious ahead of New Zealand’s Q2 GDP release later this week, with markets anticipating a moderation in quarterly growth. Investors were also bracing for a raft of economic data from China, New Zealand’s largest trading partner, as well as the US Federal Reserve’s monetary policy meeting in the coming days.
On the domestic data front, electronic card spending fell in August, reversing an increase in the previous month. Weakness in energy, healthcare, and financial stocks weighed most heavily on the benchmark, with notable declines in Channel Infrastructure (-2.3%), Infratil (-1.1%), Fisher & Paykel (-0.8%), Bankers Investment (-0.9%), and Hallenstein Glasson (-0.7%).
