New Zealand shares fell 112 points, or 0.8%, to close at 13,768 on Friday, extending the previous session’s losses and hitting their lowest level since August 17. The decline was led by weakness in utilities, technology, and financial stocks.
Investor caution grew ahead of next week’s monetary policy decision by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, with markets widely expecting a 25 bps rate hike following the increase in May. Sentiment was further tempered as traders awaited a speech by the US Federal Reserve Chair at the Jackson Hole symposium for guidance on the Fed’s interest rate outlook at its upcoming meeting.
Among the notable decliners were Infratil (-1.9%), Meridian Energy (-1.9%), and Fisher & Paykel (-0.9%). Port of Tauranga slipped 0.3% after reporting a drop in net profit.
In contrast, Channel Infrastructure climbed 6.9% after posting a sharp increase in net profit for H1 2026, while Sky Network TV surged 5.7% after more than doubling its net profit.
On a weekly basis, the index lost 1.5%, its first weekly decline in a month.
