KEY POINTS:
The sharemarket recovered a little today but investors were given little in the way of direction by listed companies, with the results season not kicking off until next week.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index ended up 8.79 points, or 0.3 per cent, at 2780.3 on turnover totalling $89.6 million.
The index lost 2.7 points yesterday.
"It's been a pretty quiet day on the NZ market, and not a lot of leads although the Australian market's had a firmer tone to it this afternoon following the fiscal package," said First NZ Capital director Philip Hunter.
The Australian government revealed a A$42 billion ($53 billion) plan aimed at retaining 90,000 jobs and protecting the economy amid the global recession.
Hours later, Australia's reserve bank cut its official interest rate by 100 basis points to 3.25 per cent, giving the kiwi a small boost as it rebounded from a six-year low overnight.
The news was mixed among blue chips. Top stock Telecom was down 2c at 267, Contact Energy rose 2c to 688, Fletcher Building lost 4c to 554, Auckland Airport gained 4c to 185, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare lost 7c to 338 and F&P Appliances was up 3c at 123.
Retailer Briscoe Group was up 4c, or 5.6 per cent, at 75 after news its fourth quarter sales had improved but were still down on a year earlier.
Fellow retailer The Warehouse was up 9c at 374 and Pumpkin Patch gained 5c to 93.
Exchange operator NZX, whose January statistics showed trading continued to reflect the grim state of the global economy, was unchanged at 565.
Tower, which is planning a bond issue of up to $100m, gained 4c to 172.
Sanford was up 6c at 538, Skellerup was up 4c at 73, NZ Refining rose 17c to 668, and Sky City gained 4c to 312.
Freightways lost 2c to 298, Mainfreight was down 5c at 400, Rakon fell a cent to 99 and Nuplex lost 7c to 260.
Australia's S&P/ASX index was up 1 per cent at 3533, while Japan's Nikkei share average rose 0.8 per cent.
In the United States, the Dow Jones and S&P 500 indexes ended lower as financial shares reflected uncertainty about the Obama administration's plan to stem bank losses, and a bleak outlook by retailer Macy's fuelled worries the US recession is worsening.
However, hopes that technology stocks might be among early beneficiaries from a likely economic stimulus helped boost the Nasdaq.
- NZPA