NZ sharemarket closes down 20 points

A disappointing interim result from Steel & Tube took the shine off stocks exposed to the building sector, pushing the New Zealand sharemarket lower today.

The benchmark NZX-50 index closed down 20.229 points, or 0.656 per cent, at 3065.278. Turnover was worth $61.4 million. There were 20 rises and 55 falls among the 109 stocks traded.

Steel & Tube fell 7c to 269 after reporting an 85 per cent fall in interim profit and signalling only a slow improvement in its outlook statement.

Asian sharemarkets rose for a third day in a row today on strong economic data from Australia and China and on hopes that there will be a rescue for debt-strickened Greece.

"I think Steel & Tube set the tone for the rest of the day when it came out with a pretty disappointing result," said Grant Williamson, director at Hamilton, Hindin, Greene.

The result rubbed off on stocks in similar sectors. Most notably Fletcher Building was up 9c in early trading but it closed down 10c at 745 after the Steel & Tube result was known.

Telecom rose 2c to 231 ahead of its second quarter result tomorrow. "If we look at the long term chart it hasn't really had any of the recovery that we saw in equity prices last year," Mr Williamson said.

Contact Energy fell 14c to 566 on a day it was in the news for increasing prices. NZ Refining fell 5c to 355 and NZOG was unchanged at 150.

Retail sales data tomorrow will be of interest to investors in retailers. Today, The Warehouse was down 1c to 379, Hallenstein Glasson was unchanged at 363 and Hellaby was unchanged at 160.

Port of Tauranga rose 4c to 707 and TrustPower rose 3c to 735.

NZX was down 6c to 215. Sanford fell 1c to 461. SkyCity fell 6c to 310 and SkyTV fell 7c to 142.

AMP Office Trust fell 1c to 73, ING Property Trust was down 2c at 75 and Kiwi Income Property Trust was down 2c at 100.

US stocks dipped on Wednesday as worries over Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's strategy after the economy recovers offset optimism about a possible rescue for debt-burdened Greece.

Trading volume was light, with many participants leaving early because of an East Coast snowstorm. The French daily Le Monde wrote that France and Germany were set to present a plan at a European Union summit on Thursday aimed at preventing Greece from going bankrupt.

But stocks initially dropped after Bernanke gave his most detailed description to date of how the Fed would dismantle emergency supports put in place to bolster an ailing economy. The Dow Jones industrial average was down 20.26 points, or 0.20 per cent, at 10,038.38. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 2.39 points, or 0.22 per cent, at 1068.13. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 3 points, or 0.14 per cent, at 2147.87.

- NZPA