Infratil profit fails to lift NZ market

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The sharemarket gave back much of yesterday's gains, with a solid half-year result from infrastructure investor Infratil not enough to lift its shares or the market.

The benchmark NZX-50 index closed down 13.17 points, or 0.4 per cent, at 3315.06, having risen 17 points yesterday on the back of a solid rise in Telecom's share price.

Today, Telecom gave back 2c to 220.

Infratil shares rose 4c to a two-year high of 194 after the interim results this morning, but lost ground to close down a cent at 189.

The company upgraded its annual earnings outlook and reported a 25 per cent increase in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortisation and financial instruments to $258 million.

It put the increase down to Infratil Energy Australia's higher earnings, and the $13 million equity accounted contribution from its Greenstone Energy business, which owns Shell.

Infratil's after-tax profit rose to $43m from $14m a year earlier.

Fletcher Building rose a cent to 794 ahead of its annual meeting tomorrow, Contact Energy lost 2c to 595, Auckland Airport was down a cent at 212, Sky TV shed 8c to 537 and casino company Sky City fell a cent to 319.

Other stocks to decline included Abano, down 3c at 516, Freightway, down 4c at 304, and Rakon, off 4c at 122.

Pike River Coal closed down 1c at 95 after yesterday telling shareholders it was being more realistic about its forecasts.

On the other side of the ledger, network company Vector gained 4c to 251, Trustpower was up 3c at 745, NZX gained 2c to 153, and Tower rose 2c to 188.

Dual-listed stocks were generally lower, with AMP down 39c at 676, ANZ off 10c at 2955, and Telstra 9c lower at 328.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index gained 9 points to 4696.

Earlier in the US, Wall Street stocks climbed on Monday after two large proposed acquisitions and strong retail sales boosted investors' confidence about the outlook for stocks.

- NZPA