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The New Zealand share market fell today but the losses were modest compared to Wall Street, which ushered in the Barack Obama presidency with a record Inauguration Day drop.
Telecom rose 5c to 247 and brokers said there had been very good volume traded in the stock in the last four trading days.
However, Telecom has 1.8 billion shares on issue so it takes a lot of buying to feature on the share register.
Australian telecommunications company Telstra also rose today as traders said defensive stock were less prone to sharp declines during a recession.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed down 4.441 points, or 0.164 per cent, at 2705.041. Volume was worth $94.23 million. There were 28 rises and 44 falls.
A total of 15.9 million Telecom shares traded today worth $38.6m.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 332.13 points, or 4.01 per cent, to 7949.09 after the inauguration speech concluded with little new information to digest.
Shares in State Street Corp plunged 59 per cent after the world's largest institutional money manager said it had a US$6.3 billion ($12.1b) unrealised loss in its investment portfolio.
Stephen Wright of ASB Securities said the dividend yields on New Zealand shares were attractive, including to foreign investors.
"Considering the overnight markets and the Asian markets it has been a fairly muted performance by our market," he said.
"The index has certainly been helped by Telecom."
Contact Energy lost another 6c to 660, having plunged 9 per cent yesterday after announcing it expected underlying earnings after tax for the current financial year to be down 20 to 23 per cent.
Fletcher Building fell 16c to 564. Mainfreight fell 20c to 450 but it was on light volume.
The Warehouse fell 11c to 360 and Nuplex fell 13c to 295. Air NZ fell 2c to 88 and TrustPower fell 1c to 719.
Steel & Tube rose 2c to 292.
SkyCity rose 3c to 312 and Sanford rose 5c to 525. Restaurant Brands rose 3c to 68. NZOG was up 3c to 124 and NZ Refining was up 5c to 585.
Infratil rose 7c to 165 after falling earlier this week on news that its chief executive was ill.
In the US, The Standard & Poor's 500 Index slid 44.90 points, or 5.28 per cent, to 805.22. The Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 88.47 points, or 5.78 per cent, to 1440.86.
The decline for the Dow marked the largest point and percentage drop for the index since December 1, 2008, and the first time the Dow has been below 8000 since November 20, 2008.
- NZPA