KEY POINTS:
The sharemarket turned down 0.4 per cent after yesterday's good performance, crabbing sideways amid volatile trading in blue chip stock Fletcher Building.
The Reserve Bank's decision to leave interest rates at 8.25 per cent was no surprise, although the horizon for the next rate cut was pushed out
further than some had expected.
The NZSX-50, which yesterday rose 0.9 per cent, closed down 15.6 points at 3603.8, on turnover totalling just $88.1 million.
"We didn't really have any highlights - we started off a bit weaker and we just drifted a wee bit more, didn't do much really on relatively low turnover," Stephen Wright of ASB Securities.
"The likes of Fletcher Building just opened weaker and drifted lower. They had a good run yesterday, they just gave back most of what they picked up yesterday," Mr Wright said.
Second-ranked Fletcher Building fell 31c, or 3 per cent, to 980.
Top stock Telecom fell 2c to 393, Contact Energy rose 5c to 830, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was up 3c at 297, and F&P Appliances rose a cent to 261.
Auckland Airport (AIA) was up 3c at 228 after the Canadian Pension Plan said it now had 18.1 per cent of the company, up from 15.5 per cent the day before, as it moved toward its 40 per cent target.
Sky City rose 2c to 399, Sky TV was up 5c at 505 and Vector lost 3c to 185.
Further down the top-50, Air New Zealand was up 3c at 150, Port of Tauranga rose 4c to 655, NZ Oil and Gas was up 4c at 132, and Tower rose 5c to 195.
Rakon was down 2c at 255, PGG Wrightson fell 6c to 209, Pumpkin Patch lost 2c to 188, Hellaby shed 16c to 194, and Infratil lost 10c to 235.
Finance company Dorchester Pacific, which yesterday plunged 16.5 per cent to a 10-year low, today fell another 6c, or 9 per cent, to 60c.
The company late last month downgraded its profit guidance by up to half, citing reduced lending volumes, lower fee income and increased provisioning for its finance company.
Among dual-listed stocks, ANZ was down 5c at 2465, Westpac slid 61c to 2600, AMP was down 10c at 850, and Lion Nathan was flat at 1080.
Australia's benchmark index was up 1 per cent at 5431, while Japan's Nikkei share average was up 2.6 per cent.
Earlier on Wall Street, Wall Street ended higher as the market shook off a Federal Reserve survey stating that the US economy was sputtering on several fronts amid a long-running housing market slump.
- NZPA