KEY POINTS:
New Zealands sharemarket picked itself up from renewed fears on Wall St, which saw the market initially fall more than 1 percent.
The NZSX-50 benchmark index closed at 4084.16, down 16.9 points or 0.4 percent, but better than an initial tumble of up to 41 points.
Total turnover
was $139 million. There were 35 rises and 68 falls among the 147 stocks traded.
Telecom accounted for about a third of the trading, up 7c to 422, after a draft Commerce Commission ruling on the price of "unbundled" bitstream services was largely unchanged.
"It was no worse than expected," said ASB Securities broker Stephen Wright.
Another highlight of a busy reporting day was GPG, up 5c to 195. The company reporting a 185 percent increase in half-year net profit to Stg94 million ($NZ273.7 million), with a slight improvement in profit from thread maker Coats.
"Coats has been the main area of concern because its a big part of their operations," Mr Wright noted.
"The thread part seemed to be doing very well - of course, the yarn side is still poor but overall, a reasonable result."
Contact Energy range traded, down 20c to 933, after reporting a 14 percent fall in profit yesterday, while Fletcher Building closed up 4c at 1169 after touching 1138 earlier in the day.
Sky City rose 4c to 461, and F&P Appliances gained 4c to 372.
Falls included Port of Tauranga down 22c to 688, Tower down 10c to 218, F&P Healthcare down 3c to 337, and Air NZ down 9c to 199, despite receiving an unchanged rating from credit ratings agency Standard & Poors.
Mr Wright said that despite the airlines good result yesterday, investors were being cautious about the airlines 2008 outlook, the prospect of fuel price hikes and its performance on fundamentals.
ING Medical Properties Trust, formerly Calan, eased 2c to 127 after reporting a 4 percent drop in annual net profit to $10.2 million.
"The market always likes confirmation," Mr Wright said as the company released positive details on its prospects.
NZ Oil & Gas slipped 2c to 103 after posting a 187 percent increase in its June year net profit to $6.6 million.
Delegats was flat at 260 after reporting a bumper June year net profit of $14.9 million, tripling its result a year ago.
After the market closed, medical and dental products company Ebos announced it was buying a private wholesale pharmaceutical supplier, PRNZ, for $86.3 million. Trading in the companys shares would remain suspended until Friday afternoon or until capital raising was completed, the NZX said.
Jitters continued in the finance company market after the news small listed firm PropertyFinance Ltd had gone into receivership.
In late afternoon trading the Australian sharemarket was trading down 1.9 percent, in line with the credit worries which surfaced overnight in the US.
US stock indices tumbled more than 2 percent after Merrill Lynch warned that ailing credit markets would hurt bank profits, while reports showing eroding consumer confidence and falling home prices added to concerns about the economy.
The Dow Jones industrial average skidded 280.28 points, or 2.10 percent, to 13,041.85. The Standard & Poors 500 Index dropped 34.43 points, or 2.35 percent, to 1432.36 and the Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 60.61 points, or 2.37 percent, to 2500.64.
- NZPA
