KEY POINTS:
Sizeable falls among the blue chip stocks weighed on the sharemarket today, with some moderate gains for second-tier stocks unable to lift the mood.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed down 18.01 points, or 0.67 per cent, to 2661.74, reversing most of yesterday's gain of 24.4 points in pre-Christmas trading market.
"Institutions are probably already down to a skeleton staff so not much happening there, and wouldn't expect much until mid to late January," said Stephen Wright of ASB Securities.
`We just kept drifting down after a slow start, and it is just a drift really, there's no great news."
NZX markets close an hour early tomorrow, ahead of the two-day Christmas holiday.
Turnover was a tiny $37 million.
Top stock Telecom fell a cent to 225, Contact Energy lost 14c to 691, and Fletcher Building was down 13c at 597.
Auckland International Airport was down 4c at 160, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rose 5c to 308, F&P Appliances fell 3c to 124, Sky City jumped 8c to 304, and Sky TV was flat at 390.
The Warehouse lost 5c to 348, Vector fell 5c to 210, Sanford was down 16c to 500, Port of Tauranga lost 17c to 631, and carpetmaker Cavalier fell 10c to 170.
On the other side of the ledger, Infratil was up 4c at 170, Pumpkin Patch rose a cent to 100, Steel & Tube gained 5c to 300, Ryman Healthcare rose 2c to 144, and Tower gained 2c to 145.
Dual-listed stocks were mixed. Westpac lost 76c to 1924, AMP fell 2c to 633 and Lion Nathan rose 4c to 891.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index was down 1.5 per cent at 3504.
Earlier on Wall Street, stocks slid on more evidence the year-long recession will keep eating into corporate profits while retailers tumbled on worry the main shopping season could be the worst in nearly 40 years.
- NZPA
