KEY POINTS:
The sharemarket could not resist selling pressure which pushed it to a fresh 27-month low today , but Fletcher Building continued to rally.
The NZSX-50 index closed down 12.9 points or 0.3 per cent to 3391.62. Falls outnumbered rises 61 to 35 on a mild $87 million turnover.
It was the lowest close since February 2006 and during the session briefly sank even lower to 3374.34 .
However, Fletcher Building jumped 9c to 684, up from a three-year low of 658 it touched yesterday.
"The rest of the market is just continuing to drift with buyer apathy and lack of positive direction from overseas," First NZ Capital broker Don Lewthwaite said.
"Fletcher's went against the grain after being oversold in the last couple of days but it's all on very light volumes."
Fletcher Building has been pounded as investors worry about its exposure to the housing market in New Zealand and the U S.
Transport company Mainfreight took a beating, down 13c to 700, in contrast to a steady upwards trend helped by its offshore interests.
Top stock Telecom led the market down, off 4c to 380, Infratil slipped 5c to 207, Auckland Airport shed 4c to 207, and Nuplex fell 17c to 539 .
But Contact Energy "held the line" at 844, up 6c , PGG Wrightson regained 7c to 260, and dual-listed Westpac made 54c to 2750.
The Warehouse lost 10c to 500 but Mr Lewthwaite said it was unlikely to be due to an anticipated court announcement on possible takeover action.
"Volumes are so light and spreads are getting a bit wider, that you can't actually read too much into one-day movements."
Energy company TrustPower ended flat at 800 after falling 40c yesterday following a warning that low lake levels were affecting its bottom line.
Pike River Coal rose 9c to 198, having ranged between $2.14 and 77.4c in the past year.
Dominion Finance remained on a trading halt after announcing it might seek a possible moratorium on debenture repayments. The shares last traded at 50c, a year low compared to a record high of $2.86 in May last year.
In late trading, the Australian sharemarket was little changed, up 0.1 per cent as banking stocks came under pressure over global economic concerns.
On Wall St, US stocks fell after Goldman Sachs warned that US banks would have to raise as much as $65 billion in capital to shore up balance sheets weakened by the mortgage crisis.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 108.78 points, or 0.89 per cent, at 12,160.30. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index finished down 9.21 points, or 0.68 per cent, at 1,350.93, while the Nasdaq ended down 17.05 points, or 0.69 per cent, at 2,457.73.
- NZPA
