KEY POINTS:
After a two-day reprieve, the sharemarket resumed its downward path today as it came under pressure from weaker overseas markets.
The benchmark NZSX-50 was down 0.5 per cent or 16.89 points to 3281.29 on turnover worth $142 million.
At local closing time, the Australian sharemarket was down 1.25 per cent after gloomy economic data rekindled concerns about the US.
"We believe we are seeing some Australian end-of-financial year selling," Grant Williamson, a partner at Hamilton, Hindin, Greene said.
"That's why the Australian market is particularly weak and we are seeing selling in the stocks Australians have a lot of."
Top stock Telecom was down 8c to 362, an "oversold" Fletcher Building bounced 23c to 665, and Fisher & Paykel Appliances fell 4c to 196 after admitting the slide in its share price had made it an attractive target. The stock hit a year low of 187 on Monday, half the levels it was at a year ago.
Contact - which yesterday jumped 16c on a renewed takeover bid for its majority shareholder - rose another 6c today to 845.
On the downturn were Infratil down 4c to 186, Sky City down 13c to 320, and Rakon down 10c to 305 after a 29c surge yesterday.
Mr Williamson said Sky City had enjoyed a "nice lift" yesterday, and profit-selling, possibly foreign, had been at work today.
Bargain hunters helped Freightways , which rose 19c to 319 in the wake of a pummelling over fuel prices. Mainfreight rose 5c to 669 after being pushed down from $7.20 two weeks ago.
NZOG was also on the upside, touching a record high of 176 but ending at 174, up 13c or 8 per cent. Mr Williamson said the stock had been under pressure from an exercising of options and now they had stopped trading, the share price had lifted.
"A number of analysts also have lifted their earnings and price targets on the stock and there are forecasts in excess of $2.00."
OceanaGold rose 10c or 8 per cent to 135 after the company outlined measures it was taking to overcome funding and physical difficulties in the Philippines.
The worst performers of the day were finance companies Dominion Finance, which is seeking a moratorium on debenture repayments, and Dorchester Pacific.
Dominion fell 4.4c or 25 per cent to 12.6c and Dorchester Pacific closed down 10c or 32 per cent to a record low of 21c.
Dorchester is a 25 per cent stakeholder in troubled finance company St Laurence and after the market closed, it announced that its finance arm was seeking to defer repayments to debenture holders.
In the US, a consumer confidence report hit a 16-year low and as a profit warning from United Parcel Service stoked fears about corporate results.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 32.89 points (0.28 per cent) to 11,809.47 and the Nasdaq composite shed 17.46 points (0.73 per cent) to 2368.28, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 3.47 points (0.26 per cent) to a preliminary close of 1314.53.
- NZPA
