NZ sharemarket falls

The New Zealand sharemarket fell today after a flat trading day for stocks in the United States where the Federal Reserve suggested additional measures may be needed to combat a weakening economy.

The benchmark NZX-50 index closed down 25.122 points, or 0.83 per cent, at 3002.316. Turnover was worth $52 million. There were 31 rises and 41 falls among the 107 stocks traded.

"Weakness in offshore markets provided an excuse for the sellers to come back out," said Grant Williamson, director at Hamilton, Hindin, Greene.

Leaders like Telecom, down 7c at 190, and Fletcher Building, down 10c to 764, took the brunt of the selling.

NZOG initially enjoyed some follow through buying after yesterday's announcement of an upgrade of the Kupe oil and gas field resource but ended down 5c at 130. The larger windfall is to Genesis Energy, which is wholly state-owned, and not listed.

There was good volume in Allied Farmers shares, with 979,609 million trading, and the stock ended up 17.65 per cent at 4c after confirming the sale of a property adjacent to Queenstown Airport.

Auckland Airport was unchanged at 196 on a day leaders of the Queenstown community expressed opposition to the sale of a quarter of Queenstown Airport to Auckland Airport.

Goodman Fielder fell 1c to 162, Cavalier Carpets fell 4c to 246, Guinness Peat Group fell 1c to 67 and Steel & Tube fell 2c to 226. Renaissance Corp fell 3c to 25, Rakon fell 4c to 92 and Sealegs fell 1c to 21.

Contact Energy fell 6c to 574 and TrustPower fell 5c to 718.

Methven rose 3c to 146, NZ Refining rose 8c to 324 and Mainfreight rose 7c to 635. Port of Tauranga rose 5c to 690 and AMP rose 2c to 662.

In the US, optimism over the start of earnings season limited declines after Intel Corp reported better-than-expected results on signs of renewed corporate spending.

But minutes of the Fed's June meeting showed officials are more concerned with the pace of economic recovery. That added to jitters stoked by a weak report on June retail sales.

The Dow Jones industrial average edged up 0.04 per cent to end at 10,366.72, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index dipped 0.02 per cent to 1095.17, and the Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.4 per cent to close at 2249.84.

- NZPA