NZ stocks: Telecom drags market to flat finish on competition concerns

The sharemarket closed near level today after early gains were swept away as leading stock Telecom wilted -- thanks to a whiff of increased competion in the mobile phone sector.

Having hit a fresh intra day high of 3379.03 -- 22 points above its opening level this morning -- a 1.6 per cent stumble by Telecom dragged the benchmark NZSX-50 gross index back again and it closed 1.05 points or 0.03 per cent lower at 3356.92. The NZSX all capital index moved less than a tenth of a point to 1053.91.

"It's all based on Telcom's turnaround, Goldman Sachs JB WERE broker Joe Gallagher said.

Telecom closed 10c lower at 627 when investors seized on comments from TelstraClear chief executive Alan Freeth at a telecommunications conference in Wellington, taking them to mean TelstraClear had firm intentions to build a third mobile network in New Zealand.

The mobile phone market in New Zealand remains largely dominated by Telecom and British owned Vodafone NZ.

- NZPA