Listed South Island companies have succumbed to the international financial upheaval, with an index measuring their capitalisation easing in the September quarter.
The 15.2% fall was the first time the Deloitte South Island quarterly index has declined since it began at the start of this year.
It wiped $676 million in capital off publicly listed South Island companies, which now had a combined market capitalisation of $3.78 billion.
A corporate finance partner with Deloittes in Christchurch, Paul Munro, said September was particularly challenging, with the index falling 15% in that month alone.
Larger companies bore the brunt of the international upheaval, he said, with 53% of companies in the index actually increasing their market capitalisation in the quarter.
PGG Wrightson, Pyke River Coal and New Zealand Farming Systems Uruguay all slipped while smaller companies Pacific Edge Biotechnology, Connexionz, Apple Fields, Smiths City and Scott Technology grew.
Some of those companies, such as Pacific Edge, had grown from a low base.
"It is still a positive sign that some of the smaller companies are performing well," he said.
Five of the eight sectors measured declined during the quarter, led by primary (-30.5%) and technology (-16.1%).
The best-performing sector was ports, which rose 3.5%.
Mr Munro said the two publicly-listed ports, Lyttelton and South Port, were indicative of the wider sector and had benefited from increased exports, particularly dairy, while investors tended to view infrastructure-based companies as less of a risk.
Looking ahead, Mr Munro said the influence of the primary sector, which represented 38% of the index, could help its performance in the medium to long term.
A falling exchange rate helped exporters, and there were signs the Reserve Bank would trim the official cash rate, lowering debt servicing for the asset-heavy primary sector.
"A lot of fundamentals are playing into the hands of South Island companies," he said in an interview.
Because of that, South Island companies tended not to have the boom and bust cycles of those in the North Island, and should therefore recover faster.
With most of New Zealand's publicly listed companies based in the North Island, the performance of the New Zealand Stock Exchange tended to mirror the performance of those companies, he said.
Ryman Healthcare remained the South Island's largest publicly listed company at $805 million, growing its market capitalisation 1%, followed by PGG Wrightson at $463 million and Pike River Coal at $431 million.
International turmoil had increased since the survey, and Deloitte would revisit the figures at the end of this month.
