NZ sharemarket remains in red during quiet session

File photo / NZH

The New Zealand sharemarket steadied slightly after an early fall, but remained in the red during a quiet session today in which many stocks closed unchanged.

The benchmark NZX-50 index ended down 5.88 points at 3264.51, reversing yesterday's 6-point rise.

Telecom lost 5c to 216, Contact Energy was flat at 593, and Auckland Airport lost a cent to 208.

Fletcher Building was unchanged at 795 despite a decline in building consent approvals, excluding apartments, in October for the fourth consecutive month. Economists believed there was a chance the industry's fortunes would improve next year.

Sky TV shed 8c to 518, while casino company Sky City rose 2c to 313 and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare gained 5c to 298.

Allied Farmers closed steady at 2.3c after the company told shareholders at today's annual meeting that it was focusing on its rural services business, and admitted it had made mistakes in a disastrous year.

Goodman Property Trust lost 2c to 96, children's clothing company Pumpkin Patch slid 2c to a 15-month low of 168, fellow clothing business Hallenstein Glasson was down 5c at 430, and Trustpower fell 2c to 728.

Stocks to gain included carpetmaker Cavalier, up 5c at 310, Kathmandu, up 6c at 168, and NZX, up 3c at 150.

Abano Healthcare gained 2c to 509 after saying it expected to shoulder a short-term cost from investment in its offshore management teams and offices, but benefit in the medium to long term.

Shareholders at today's annual meeting heard that Abano was in growth mode, and expected revenues to decline to between $85.8 million and $86.8 million for the six months to the end of November, from $102.3m last year.

Tapware company Methven fell 2c to 156, on top of a 5c fall yesterday which came after the company reported its interim result. The company talked about difficult conditions but maintained its dividend.

Dual-listed stocks were firmer, with AMP up 19c at 665, ANZ up 26c at 2950, Telstra up 2c at 364, and APN up 10c at 250.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index was down 0.7 per cent at 4586.

Earlier in the United States, stocks edged down in low volume on worries Europe's credit crisis will spread despite a weekend agreement to bail out Ireland.

But shares finished well off their lows as the US dollar retraced some of its earlier gains and energy and financial stocks rallied late.

- NZPA