KEY POINTS:
Sizeable falls among the blue chip stocks weighed on the sharemarket yesterday, with some moderate gains for second-tier stocks unable to lift the mood.
The NZX-50 index closed down 18.01 points, or 0.67 per cent, to 2661.74, reversing most of Monday's gain of 24.4 points.
"Institutions are probably already down to a skeleton staff so not much
happening there, and wouldn't expect much until mid to late January," said Stephen Wright of ASB Securities. 'We just kept drifting down after a slow start, and it is just a drift really, there's no great news."
NZX markets close an hour early today.
Turnover was a tiny $37 million.
Top stock Telecom fell 1c to $2.25, Contact Energy lost 14c to $6.91, and Fletcher Building was down 13c at $5.97.
Auckland International Airport shed 4c to $1.60, and Air New Zealand also gave back 4c to 85c.
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rose 5c to $3.08, F&P Appliances fell 3c to
$1.24, SkyCity jumped 8c to $3.04, and Sky TV was flat at $3.90.
The Warehouse lost 5c to $3.48, Vector fell 5c to $2.10, Sanford was down 16c to $5, Port of Tauranga lost 17c to $6.31, and carpetmaker Cavalier fell 10c to $1.70.
On the other side of the ledger, Infratil was up 4c at $1.70, Pumpkin Patch rose 1c to $1, Steel & Tube gained 5c to $3, Ryman Healthcare rose 2c to $1.44, and Tower gained 2c to $1.45.
Dual-listed stocks were mixed. Westpac lost 76c to $19.24, AMP fell 2c to $6.33 and Lion Nathan rose 4c to $8.91.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index closed around 0.7 per cent lower, led down by weaker major mining stocks. Earlier on Wall St, stocks slid on more
evidence the year-long recession will keep eating into corporate profits while retailers tumbled on worries the main shopping season could be the worst in nearly 40 years.
- NZPA