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The sharemarket improved during the day after an early slide, but failed to make it into the black despite some solid company results.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed down 5.91 points at 3321.0, ending 37 points above the day's low and recovering after sharp drops on Wall Street overnight. Turnover totalled $83.7 million.
"Not a bad performance, all things considered," said Grant Williamson of Hamilton Hindin Greene.
Contact Energy's annual result was the main highlight, with the stock closing up 9c at 840 after an initial sell-off.
Contact posted a 1 per cent fall in full year net profit to $237.1 million, and underlying earnings up 0.7 per cent at $232.8 million.
Contact said it had had to supply some South Island demand by purchasing electricity from the spot market at a "significant" loss during some periods. The company's performance for the first two months of the current financial year was below expectations, chief executive David Baldwin said.
"It was a pretty average outlook for the company, saying it's difficult to find where the growth is going to come from next year, so I think that disappointed investors a little bit," Mr Williamson said.
"Certainly the share price has been underpinned because of the defensive nature of the company."
Also reporting today, Air New Zealand shares fell 2c to 120 on news the national carrier's annual net profit fell 1 per cent to $218m. While operating revenue rose 9 per cent to a record high, the company faced a $300m rise in its fuel bill.
"Overall I think the company's doing extremely well compared to a lot of their international competitors, still highly profitable, but there's just that fuel pricing outside of their control so they're dictated to by the oil market," Mr Williamson said.
Elsewhere on the market, Telecom fell 6c to 330, Fletcher Building was up a cent at 732, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was flat at 298, and F&P Appliances was also flat, at 180.
The Warehouse rose 3c to 338, NZ Oil and Gas was up 4c at 154, Freightways rose 3c to 338, and Guinness Peat Group was up 4c at 148.
Sky TV fell 7c to 473, Tower fell 4c to 223, Pumpkin Patch lost 6c to 155, NZX was down 15c at 743, and Hallenstein Glasson lost 5c to 280.
Pyne Gould Corp fell 3c to 345, despite posting a 22 per cent rise in annual net profit to a record $44.8 million for the year to June 30.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index was down 0.7 per cent at 4980, while Japan's Nikkei share average fell 0.8 per cent.
Earlier on Wall Street, stocks fell sharply as credit concerns hounded financial stocks while global growth worries hurt big technology and industrial companies.
- NZPA
