KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket closed a fairly quiet session lower as the profit reporting season continued.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed down 2.48 points at 3318.52. There were 45 rises and 32 falls and turnover was worth just $64.9 million.
Today was historic though. Sir Ron Brierley signalled his intention to retire as chairman of investment company Guinness Peat Group in 2010.
GPG shares fell 5c to 143 after the company reported one of its worst interim results. But Sir Ron was upbeat about the next two years going into company's 20th anniversary in 2010, without giving details.
"GPG is always a net tangible assets story and its value comes and goes for share markets," said Stephen Wright at ASB Securities.
He said it was a very quiet day on the share market and attention was turning to results expected from Cavalier Carpets, NZOG and Hellaby Holdings this week.
C avalier was up 3c at 275, NZOG was up 8c at 162 and Hellaby was down 1c at 176.
Top stock Telecom closed down 6c at 324, while Fletcher Building eased 5c at 727.
Contact Energy was down 1c at 839, having gained 9c yesterday after posting a 1 per cent fall in full year net profit to $237.1m, and underlying earnings up 0.7 per cent at $232.8m.
Vector was up 6c at 236 after reporting today and gaining a waiver from NZXR for a share buyback programme that will reduce the free-float of its shares by 10 per cent.
Mainfreight was up 7c at 725.
ING Medical Property Trust was up 4c at 113 after reporting today.
Sanford rose 13c to 605 and SkyCity rose 3c to 344.
Asian markets were mixed today. In the US, the Dow and S&P 500 rose as hurricane fears lifted oil prices and boosted energy shares, blunting the effect of a report that showed a growing number of problem US banks.
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.23 per cent at 11,412.87. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 0.37 per cent at 1271.50. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 0.15 per cent at 2361.97.
- NZPA
