KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket was positive for most of the day, but ended slightly down after falling away from mid-afternoon.
When the market closed the benchmark NZSX-50 index had slipped 4.19 points to 2747.98, having been up 14.5 points at lunchtime.
Peter Sigley, dealer at Goldman Sachs JBWere said that for much of the day the market appeared to have taken something of a lead from a positive market in Australia, but trading was patchy.
Retailers appeared to have a good run but that was on light volume, he said.
The Warehouse gained as much as 12c at one stage, and ended the day up 10c at 370, while Hallenstein Glasson gained 4c to 220, having been up 9c early in the day.
While those particular movements "could be in response to anything", in a general sense the Government was starting to kick into action on the job front, Mr Sigley said.
The market was also building in expectations of a larger rate cut than previously thought from the Reserve Bank late this month.
Infratil was off quite sharply for part of the day on reasonably light volume with the sad news that chief executive Lloyd Morrison was ill, he said.
Infratil shares ended the day down 2c at 163, having slid 7c for a period. Before the market opened the company announced that Mr Morrison was stepping down from the business for a period of medical leave, after being diagnosed with a form of leukaemia for which he has started treatment.
"The guy's an inspiring leader of that business," Mr Sigley said.
PGG Wrightson, which today announced it was closing its Australian real estate and livestock offices, ended the day down 15c, or 10.5 per cent, to 128 on reasonable volume for the company.
The stock had a tough end to last year but a decent rebound into 2009. Today it seemed to have been giving some of the recovery back, Mr Sigley said.
Wellington Anniversary Day affected the amount of trading today, while the Martin Luther King's Day holiday starting the week in the United States also took liquidity out of the market.
Children's clothing retailer Pumpkin Patch ended the day up 1c to 97, after the company informed the market that businesswoman Jan Cameron had lifted her stake in the company to 9.1 per cent from 6.3 per cent.
Other stocks to gain today included Hellaby Holdings up 7c to 137, Tower up 6c to 166, Ebos Group up 5c to 440, Freightways up 4c to 286, Contact Energy up 3c to 735, and Sky City up 3c to 309.
Among stocks to fall Trustpower ended down 10c to 710, Port of Tauranga was down 10c to 620, Steel & Tube dropped 5c to 295, and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare lost 5c to 320.
- NZPA
