KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket was still slipping today in a thin holiday market: weaker blue chips softened and USA stocks provided little direction.
Shortly after opening, the benchmark NZSX-50 index was down 12.6 points and finished the day down 23.06 points - a drop for the day of 0.57 per cent - at 4010.82 points.
There were 27 rises and 41 falls among the thin volumes, with the 15.69 million shares traded valued at $54.04 million.
Half that volume, 7.71 million shares worth $33.3 million was made up of the dominant stock, Telecom, which fell 3c early in the day and stayed down at 431c.
Abano Healthcare was untraded. It closed yesterday at a six-year high of 510 ahead of news that directors were rejecting a $5.20/share takeover offer from Crescent Capital Partners, and the lack of sales suggested shareholders were listening to their directors.
An independent adviser has put a revised valuation range of $5.15 to $5.90 on the shares, with a mid-point of $5.52.
Fletcher Building finished down 12c at 1138, as 216,000 shares valued at $2.47 million changed hands.
The second-biggest turnover was in Contact Energy, where 461,000 shares were exchanged, valued at $3.87 million and the share price dropped 2c to 840.
About 369,000 Fisher & Paykel Healthcare shares traded, the price rising 10 to 355.
Sky TV went in the other direction, initially falling 4c in early trading, and finishing the day down 17c at 582, on a volume of 118,000 shares valued at $691,700.
Auckland International Airport fell 3c to 288 as 464,000 shares valued at $1.33 million changed hands.
Rakon fell 12c to 385 as a small number of shares sold, Air New Zealand was steady at 188, carpet maker Cavalier was down 5c at 270, and NZ Oil and Gas lost 2c to 115 on a trade of 200,000 shares despite yesterday's news of record production at the Tui oil field, which is nearing its peak projections.
Westpac, jumped 43c to 3156 in early trading and finished the day up 17c at 3130, on very small volume. Other top-50 stocks to post a rise included The Warehouse, up 4c at 580, and AMP, 2c higher at 1122.
Guinness Peat Group was steady, at 170c, and Pumpkin Patch, was steady at 257.
On Wall Street, US technology stocks ended lower as concerns about business spending dragged down shares of bellwethers such as Intel Corp, while caution before Friday's payrolls data limited a broader market advance.
Based on the latest available data, the Dow Jones industrial average inched up 12.76 points, or 0.10 per cent, for an unofficial close at 13,056.72. Standard & Poor's 500 Index edged up 0.01 points to end unofficially at 1447.17.
The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 6.95 points, or 0.27 per cent, to end at 2602.68. It was the Nasdaq's fifth straight trading day of losses.
A surge in crude oil futures to US$100 a barrel on Wednesday helped the Dow to post a record point drop for the first trading day of the year. However, a second record above US$100 on Thursday had less dramatic impact.
- NZPA
