Contact shares down 3pc

Contact Energy shares were down about 3 per cent in early trading after the company reported a 50.4 per cent fall in full year net profit to $117.5 million.

An unchanged final dividend of 17c per share is to be paid, based on the expectation the company's financial performance will return to normal trends.

But managing director David Baldwin warned of a range of potential factors, saying that to the extent such impacts did occur, the company would be unlikely to maintain distributions at this year's level.

Contact's shares were down 19c early to $6.10, while top stock Telecom lost 2c to $2.78, and another leading stock, Fletcher Building, slipped 5c to $7.85. But they were in the minority, with rises for most shares that did change price early.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was down 7.11 points to 3121.73, after rising 49 points yesterday.

Among rising stocks, Port of Tauranga gained 14c to $6.69, Mainfreight added 7c to $5.05, Sky TV was up 5c to 466, Ebos Group added 5c to $5.55, Nuplex lifted 5c to $2.34, and Tower gained 3c to $1.84.

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In the United States, stocks rose as better-than-expected earnings by Wal-Mart Stores helped offset disappointing government numbers on retail sales and jobs.

US retail sales fell 0.1 per cent in July, defying market expectations of a gain , while the number of workers filing initial applications for unemployment benefits rose by 4000 to a seasonally adjusted 558,000 after economists had anticipated a drop.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.4 per cent to 9398.19, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 0.7 per cent to 1012.73, and the Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.5 per cent to 2009.35.

- NZPA