New Zealand shares are poised for a weekly decline as shares fell 0.5% Thursday even as Asian shares tracked a tech-led increase on Wall Street overnight.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index was down 0.5%, or 68.47 points, to close at 12,692.72.

Health technology stocks led the decline as the segment dropped 1.5%, followed by producer manufacturing and commercial services, which shed 1.3% and 1.2%, respectively.

Overnight, the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.8% to cross 20,000 for the first time, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.8%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.2%.

US annual inflation accelerated to 2.7% in November from 2.6% in October, while the core measure was up 3.3% as it did in the previous month. Markets are widely expecting the US Federal Reserve to cut its key rates next week.

Asian shares were higher on Thursday, with Shanghai's SSE gaining 0.6%, Japan's Nikkei 225 up 1.3%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng rising 1.7%.

In domestic news, the New Zealand economy is likely to show a quarterly contraction of 0.4% in the third quarter, worse than the 0.2% projected decline by the central bank and ANZ Research's previous estimate, the latter's economic analysts said in a Thursday note.

Electronic card spending slipped 0.1% month on month to NZ$9.07 billion in November following a 0.2% uptick in October, according to Stats NZ data.

In corporate news, Meridian Energy (NZE:MEL, ASX:MEZ) Chief Executive Neal Barclay will step down at the end of June 2025. He will be succeeded by Chief Financial Officer Mike Roan. The company's shares were down almost 2%.

Elsewhere, Scott Technology (NZE:SCT) appointed Mark O'Malley as chief financial officer, effective Jan. 1, 2025. The technology company ended Thursday's trade up over 2%.