The New Zealand sharemarket was flat early today, with Telecom down slightly after the company announced it would sell its Yellow Pages directory group.
Analysts believe the sale could fetch around $1.5 billion that would open the way for a combination of a substantial special dividend, share buybacksand debt repayment.
The telco also said its first quarter profit rose 12 per cent to $224 million from $199m last year. That included a $20m one-off gain from the sale of Telecom Samoa Cellular.
Soon after the market opened at 10am Telecom shares were down 2c to 450, having sank 15c yesterday, after a strong recent run.
The NZX-50 was down 0.98 points early to 3757.02.
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was up 5c to 425 early, after falling 11c yesterday. On Wednesday it had bounced 13c despite a 6 per cent drop in interim net profit. F&P Appliances was unchanged on 378, after a 9c loss yesterday.
No 2 stock Fletcher Building was up 2c to 930, after falling 10c yesterday, while third-ranked Contact Energy added 1c to its 5c gain yesterday, taking it to 750.
Michael Hill, which had its annual meeting in Auckland yesterday, picked up 15c to 695, on top of yesterday's 14c gain.
Nuplex was down 25c to 655, after announcing its Australian subsidiary had signed a conditional A$20.3m ($23.7m) agreement to buy all the composites business of Huntsman Chemical Company Australia Pty Ltd.
Other early changes today included Freightways up 2c to 410, Hallenstein Glasson up 2c to 530, ING Property lost 2c to 122, Port of Tauranga added 3c to 623, Restaurant Brands rose 1c to 97, Sky TV lifted 5c to 580, while The Warehouse was down 6c to 675.
