KEY POINTS:
A poor night on Wall St left the local sharemarket soggy, and Fletcher Building reversed its short-lived gains.
The NZSX-50 benchmark index fell 0.6 per cent to 24.7 points to 3528.55 on healthy turnover worth $131 million. Falls outnumbered rises 56 to 40.
One broker said it was
a fairly nondescript day, with the larger stocks appearing to follow subdued offshore markets.
Contact Energy fell 9c to 891 and top stock Telecom was down 5c to 389. Senior Telecom executive Simon Moutter announced today he was leaving to become chief executive of Auckland Airport, which ended flat at 225.
Economic touchstone Fletcher Building erased most of yesterday's gain, down 13c to 822 on robust volume worth $29m.
"There's no news out on the company, so it must be more of the same concerns about any slowdown's going to affect Fletcher Building," said Suzanne Kinnaird of Forsyth Barr.
The lower kiwi dollar appeared to be helping some export stocks, with Fisher & Paykel Appliances up 2c to 267, Methven up 2c to 149, and Rakon up 6c to 335. But F&P Healthcare fell 5c to 261 and Pumpkin Patch slid 5c to 175.
Listed property investor Kiwi Income Property Trust rose a cent to 125 after announcing a 4.9 per cent rise in distributable profit of $62.1 million.
Dominion Finance was the worst performer, after reporting a lower-than-expected 36 per cent drop in annual profit.
Shares fell to a year low, down 9 per cent or 8c to 80.
"The question is to what degree the result was already in the share price, because everyone has known that finance companies are having a hard time of it," Ms Kinnaird said.
Other moves included Sky City up 3c to 395, The Warehouse down 2c to 528 and economic indicator Freightways down 8c to 340.
Dual-listed Lion Nathan rose 22c to 1012, but buoyant banking stocks ran out of puff including Westpac down 50c to 3050, ANZ off 10c to 2890, and AMP down 21c to 964.
In contrast with New Zealand, the Australia sharemarket was racing ahead 0.8 per cent on resource sector speculation in mid-afternoon trade.
But in the United States, blue-chip stocks declined as oil rose to another record and underscored concerns about inflation, while the Federal Reserve chairman said financial markets are still troubled.
Fed chairman Ben Bernanke said strong demand from financial institutions to borrow from the Fed showed "markets are still far from normal."
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 44.13 points, or 0.34 per cent, to 12,832.18. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 0.54 of a point, or 0.04 per cent, at 1,403.04.
But the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 6.63 points, or 0.27 per cent, at 2,495.12 after Yahoo Inc jumped on news that Carl Icahn was considering a proxy fight for Yahoo in the wake of Microsoft abandoning talks.
- NZPA