The New Zealand dollar spent another day below 61 US cents which is the first time the kiwi has traded so low against the greenback since mid-July.

ASB senior economist Mike Jones said this morning that the stronger US dollar had been “the only game in town over the past 24 hours” and it was drawing strength from less upbeat risk sentiment due to central banks globally reasserting their tightening expectations.

The NZ dollar was trading at 60.60 US cents at 5pm, down from 60.96 US cents yesterday.

On the NZ equities front, the market ended the day up – just – after spending most of the trading session flat. It wrapped up a very listless week for the local index.

Harbour Asset Management's portfolio manager, Shane Solly, said thanks to the frantic energy of the previous couple of weeks subsiding, he’d been able to spend the week digging into the earnings season results and was pleased with what he’d found.

“Companies are doing a pretty good job for a tough period of time,” he said. 

“There have been more upgrades than downgrades although outlook statuses are pretty conservative.”

The S&P/NZX 50 Index rose 18.4 points, or 0.16%, to 11628.25. Turnover was $98.2 million.

Solly said company earnings were no longer the “engine driving the market” and with very little corporate news being revealed this week, the NZ market had drifted back to being steered by global markets.

The aged care sector enjoyed a good day, he said, particularly Oceania Healthcare which rose 3.1% to $1.

Radius Residential Care was up 1.4% to 36.5 cents on light volume. Ryman Healthcare, however, ended the day down 0.7% to $9.05 and so did Third Age Services – slipping 4.3% to $2.01 – but on very light volume.

Solly said infant formula company A2 Milk had experienced a “bit of a rally” today, with the stock lifting 1.7% to $6.45 and trading over $13.7m by early evening.

Dairy firm Synlait Milk shares were flat at $3.42 per share and Fonterra Shareholders’ Fund Units were down 0.7% to $2.92.

Infrastructure investment and renewable energy company Infratil jumped up 2.4% to $9.23, which Solly said was probably on the back of the company bringing out some positive updates recently.

Energy firm Manawa Energy slipped 0.5% to $5.94. The company told the market today that its exchange offers of five-year, unsecured, unsubordinated, fixed-rate bonds had closed. The exchange offer was oversubscribed and took the total issue of bonds to $150m.

Chatham Rock Phosphate told the NZX today that its wholly owned subsidiary Chathams Pacific Rare Earths had applied for a selenium exploration permit in Queensland. 

The company said the Queensland Department of Resources had accepted its application. Chatham Rock Phosphate was down 1.5% to 34 cents in very light trading by the end of the day. 

Global cinema software provider Vista Group was down 0.6% to $1.79 by the end of the day.