KEY POINTS:
After a strong start, the sharemarket slipped into the red today, reflecting a mixed performance in Asia and on Wall St.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index erased yesterday's gains, falling 4.8 points or 0.14 percent to 3425.4 on low turnover of $89m.
"It was disappointing in the sense that
it was higher earlier on," ASB Securities head of advisory Stephen Wright said, noting the index had been up 17 points at one stage.
A feature of the session was a recovery in several stocks which have been sold down in recent times.
Pumpkin Patch had found a new lease of life after Briscoe founder Rod Duke had taken a stake, Mr Wright said, and today it ended up 5c to 181.
Likewise, Rakon rose 17c to 247, adding to a 15c rise yesterday, while Number 2 stock Fletcher Building jumped 18c to 848, recovering from a 26c fall yesterday, largely due to a 24c dividend.
Fletcher Building was "cheap on fundamentals, and Australia's up and America's been higher - the supposed factors that drove it down have become positive. Sooner or later we've been expecting Fletcher Building to pick up."
Among other leaders, Telecom eased 3c to 382, Contact Energy lost 4c to 806 and Auckland Airport was flat at 220.
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare fell 2c to 282 but F&P Appliances was up 6c at 238, and Sky City fell 4c to 352.
Hallenstein Glasson was up 9c to 360 after posting a 6.6 percent drop in interim profit as it battled worsening economic conditions.
Mr Wright said the stock, another which had been cut back on market weakness, had met expectations. "There was nothing in the result to scare off people."
Transport stocks were in the pink - Mainfreight up 6c to 566 and Freightways up 4c to 310 after yesterday announcing the purchase of an Auckland courier company plus a possible buyout of $3.5m.
"The market still likes to see a company doing things against the weak backdrop," Mr Wright noted.
Air New Zealand gained 5c to 135, The Warehouse was down 5c at 590, Nuplex fell 15c to 580 and dual-listed stocks ANZ and Westpac fell 40c to 2710 and 139c to 2720 respectively.
Australia's sharemarket was trading up 0.2 percent in mid-afternoon trading.
Overnight, Wall St's Dow Jones fell but the S&P 500 and Nasdaq rose as rebounding metal and oil prices lifted mining and energy shares.
The Dow slipped 16 points or 0.13 percent on news of the biggest drop in consumer confidence in five years. It was also held back by a brokerage advisory to sell Bank of America stocks, citing the No 2 bank's exposure to the housing market.
It closed at 12,532.60, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index inched up 3.11 points, or 0.23 percent, to finish at 1,352.99. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 14.30 points, or 0.61 percent, to close at 2,341.05.
- NZPA
