KEY POINTS:
It must be Monday. The New Zealand sharemarket eased on low volume.
Brokers said there wasn't much corporate news around and it was time to take profits from a run higher.
Telecom gave up almost all of last week's gains to close down 16c at 233.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed down 28.032 points, or 1.034 per cent at 2682.928, after initially opening higher. Volume was worth $40.42 million. There were 37 rises and 42 falls.
As the New Zealand market closed the Australian market was down about 1.35 per cent.
"There appeared to be a bit of window dressing for the end of the month so there was a little bit of a reversal of that," said David Price of Forsyth Barr.
"It did have one of its best weeks for a while last week," he said.
Tourism Holdings rose 2c to 72 and Hellaby Holdings rose 5c to 143.
Dual-listed stock Westpac Banking rose 70c to $21.20 and ANZ rose 35c to $17.50.
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rose 2c to 309 and the appliances stock eased 2c to 135.
Fletcher Building eased 3c to 555 and Mainfreight eased 5c to 480.
Air NZ was down 2c at 87 and TrustPower was down 15c at 680. The Warehouse was down 18c at 345. Wakefield was down 5c at 825.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) will release its December monetary policy statement on Thursday and is expected again to cut the official cash rate aggressively.
The Dow and S&P edged higher in choppy trading on Friday as financial stocks gained on signs that liquidity measures were beginning to work, but retailers fell at the start of the holiday shopping season in a weak economy.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 68.82 points, or 0.79 per cent, to 8795.43. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was 4.44 points higher, or 0.50 per cent, to 892.12. The Nasdaq Composite Index slid 7.15 points, or 0.47 per cent, at 1524.95.
- NZPA
