KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket slipped into positive territory today despite another down day for Telecom.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index rose 1.13 points or 0.03 per cent to 3570.75 after a weakish performance most of last week.
Turnover was fairly solid, worth $142m on 50 falls and 44 rises.
Telecom sunk 12c to 389 although the stock went ex-dividend by 7c today and had been outperforming beforehand, brokers said.
Another stock in the limelight today was Auckland International Airport, which rose 3c to 283 after its board changed their minds and recommended shareholders sell into a partial takeover bid.
But it was casino operator Sky City that pleasantly surprised the market, up 5c to 396 after reporting a 97.1 per cent fall in first half net profit to $1.3 million.
However, without a $60m write-down in its cinema assets, net profit would have been up 36.2 per cent to $61.3m.
Forsyth Barr broker David Price said the result was better than most analysts were expecting.
Generally, he said, most big company results had been on or above expectations.
"When you look through the results that we've had, there's only been five of 20 that have come in below so it's actually a relatively healthy round."
Other movers today included the Warehouse up 14c to 614 as investors await possible takeover activity; Fletcher Building up 12c to 962; Fisher & Paykel Appliances down 6c to 253; F&P Healthcare down 7c to 255; Abano up 10c to 470; and Contact down a cent to 764.
Mainfreight was up 5c to 610 after reporting a 25 per cent lift in third quarter net profit on Friday due to improving conditions.
In late trading the Australian sharemarket was up 0.4 per cent after falling 0.8 per cent last week to log its fourth straight weekly loss.
US stocks also rallied late on Friday on news that banks were near an agreement to bail out bond insurer Ambac Financial, soothing fears about the banking industry.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.79 per cent to end at 12,381.02. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 0.79 per cent to 1353.11. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.16 per cent to close at 2303.35.
- NZPA
