KEY POINTS:
The sharemarket withstood a hammering dealt out to other world bourses as recession fears in the US continue to grow.
On Friday, Wall St's Dow Jones lost 2.5 per cent on slumping consumer data, sending Australia's sharemarket down 3.2 per cent and Japan's Nikkei average down 4 per
cent in mid-afternoon trading.
By contrast, the NZSX-50 benchmark index closed virtually flat, up just 1.5 points to 3584.25. Total turnover was a respectable $109 million for a Monday, with 65 falls and 34 rises.
The index spent most of the day slightly in the red, but Forsyth Barr broker Suzanne Kinnaird said it was surprising it was not down further, "potentially because some of the companies in the New Zealand market have had relatively solid results".
Bellwether top Telecom gained 5c to 392 after touching a low of 382, the stock's lowest point since July 1993 on an adjusted basis.
On Friday, Communications Minister David Cunliffe told Telecom it needed to make changes to its amended separation package.
Fletcher Building continued to reflect the wider market, down 14c to 945, but Contact Energy rose 9c to 798, possibly due to weekend rain raising hydro lake levels.
Air New Zealand fell 9c to 158, equalling its drop on Friday when the company posted a 58 per cent lift in half year net profit.
Investors were still concerned about the airline's challenging future, brokers said.
A US2.5c drop in the New Zealand dollar jumpstarted exporters Fisher & Paykel Healthcare and its twin Appliances, up 6c to 270 and 2c to 260 respectively. The kiwi dollar hit a 23-year high on Wednesday but has since reflected recession fears in the US.
Other movers were Mainfreight down 5c to 650, GPG down 3c to 164, Sky City up 3c to 399 and Tower down 10c to 196.
Australian banks mirrored the broader market there, with Westpac down 53c to 2647, ANZ down 80c to 2480, and AMP down 25c to 900.
On Friday, Wall St's three big indices posted their largest single-day declines since a plunge in early February.
Inflation fears came to the fore in government data indicating consumers were struggling in January to keep ahead of robust price growth, which remained uncomfortably high.
A drop in US consumer confidence to a 16-year low and a contraction in business activity in the auto-intensive US Midwest added more gloom to the bleak economic outlook.
"This is just the latest piece of evidence that the US economy is teetering on the edge of recession," said Chris Rupkey, senior financial economist at Bank of Tokyo/Mitsubishi in New York, referring to Midwest business conditions.
The Dow Jones industrial average skidded 2.51 per cent to 12,266.39. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 2.7 per cent to 1330.72, and the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 2.58 per cent to 2271.48.
- NZPA
