A disappointing result from Telecom led the New Zealand sharemarket downward today.
The NZX-50 benchmark index fell 12.6 points or 0.3 per cent to 3570.38 on a total turnover of $136 million.
Telecom, New Zealand 's largest listed firm, saw its share price tumble 13c to 410 on trading worth $87 million, after posting a 168 per cent drop in fourth quarter profit.
The result was dogged by increased mobile and broadband spending and a surprise second write down in the value of its Australian arm.
But brokers said most eyes would have been on the cut in its target dividend payout ratio, which fell to 75 per cent of net profit from 85 per cent.
Telecom had always been highly regarded for its dividend yield "and people would buy into it and say 'Let the price flick around a bit,' because you were getting a good yield," Charles Abraham, a Greenslades broker, said.
The guidance was still not as strong as investors would have liked, he added.
"Even Telecom for a result day hasn't been that heavily traded," added Goldman Sachs JB Were institutional adviser Joe Gallagher.
Among other blue chips, Contact climbed 15c to 720 on thin turnover, Auckland Airport was up 3c to 209, Sky City was down a cent to 542, and Fletcher Building was back one cent to 864.
Troubled Feltex gained 0.4c to 10.8c and Cavalier Carpets dipped 9c to 345.
Hallenstein Glasson clawed back 5c from yesterday's 19c slide to 496 on illiquid trading. Mr Abraham said it appeared to be a technical correction.
Otherwise, investors were just looking for more big corporate results, he said.
Falls outnumbered rises 54 to 39 on 139 stocks traded.
Offshore, Australian shares were down 0.7 per cent in late afternoon trading on worries that higher interest rates would crimp demand for mining stocks, halving a 1.3 per cent rise on Thursday.
It was a positive day on Wall St overnight as Apple Computer Inc shares gained on the company's iPod deal with major automakers .
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 42.66 points, or 0.38 per cent, to end at 11,242.59.
- NZPA
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