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The sharemarket's flat close today belied a dramatic turnaround after a plunge of more than 2 per cent, led by heavy selling in Auckland Airport shares on further doubts about a Canadian takeover bid's success.
Unlike the index, Auckland Airport failed to make up all the ground lost after the Government last night tightened rules on foreign ownership of strategic assets, casting further doubt on a partial takeover bid by the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB).
AIA shares closed down 24c, or 9.68 per cent, at a year low of 224, having crashed to a session low of 199, the lowest point since September 2006.
The CPPIB said it was confident its offer of $3.60 per share for 40 per cent of Auckland Airport would pass the tougher rules.
The NZSX-50 benchmark index closed up 0.2 points at 3584.5, recovering 80 points from its earlier low, on healthy turnover totalling $182.7 million.
Leading the charge higher was Fletcher Building, which closed up 34c, or 3.6 per cent, at 979 after an earlier low of 940. It recovered on the back of what appeared to be portfolio buying across a number of stocks, brokers said.
"The tone, particularly towards the end given what would appear to be a buy programme in the market, definitely turned from quite weak at the outset to quite sound at the end," said First NZ Capital research manager Barry Lindsay.
Also staging a recovery was third-ranked Contact Energy, which closed up 7c at 805, up from a low of 775.
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was up 10c at 280, F&P Appliances was flat at 260, Sky City was up 4c at 403, and Sky TV rose 3c to 505.
Top stock Telecom was down a cent at 391.
The Warehouse rose a cent to 600, TrustPower was up 26c at 780 after selling a further 300,000 carbon credits, Mainfreight rose 10c to 660, PGG Wrightson was up 10c at 219, and Guinness Peat Group was up 2c at 166.
Stock exchange operator NZX lost 30c to a 14-month low of 680 on light volume, after disappointing operating statistics from February including significant falls in trading volume.
Rakon lost a further 8c to a 20-month low of 254 on continued New Zealand dollar strength.
Air New Zealand fell 9c to 149, Port of Tauranga lost 5c to 650, Vector was down 3c at 183, and Tower fell 4c to 192.
Dual-listed stocks reflected falls across the Tasman. ANZ was down 58c at 2422, Westpac fell 42c to 2605, AMP fell 50c to 850, and Lion Nathan lost 14c to 1086.
Australia's benchmark index was down 0.7 per cent at 5370, having earlier been at a low of 5347. Japan's Nikkei share average was down 0.1 per cent.
Earlier, Wall Street finished steady with the Dow and S&P closed little changed as surging commodity prices boosted shares of mining and energy companies, offsetting fears that a cash squeeze at a high-profile mortgage lender would mean more fallout from the housing slump.
- NZPA
