Sharemarket ends little changed

File photo / NZH

A rally on the sharemarket today fizzled out, leaving the benchmark NZX-50 index virtually unchanged at the close of the session.

The index closed up 3.278 points, or 0.099 per cent, at 3322.378.

Contact Energy fell 7c to 617, while TrustPower rose 5c to 735.

James Lee, head of institutional equities at First NZ Capital, said the Contact share price has been volatile and the movement was not out of the ordinary. He said trading was getting thin ahead of the holiday break.

Fletcher Building released the documentation for its bid for Crane Group but the company had already spelt out the reasons for the bid. Fletcher Building closed up 2c at 779.

NZOG was unchanged at 83 on reasonable volume for the time of the year. NZ Refining rose 10c to 435.

Telecom fell 1c to 222 on a day it spelled out its vision for the next three years in its magazine.

Infratil was unchanged at 192 after closing its infrastructure bond issue early, citing stronger than expected demand.

SkyTV rose 1c to 528, Sky City rose 2c to 335 and Air NZ rose 1c to 150.

Healthcare companies continued to be in favour with Ebos up 6c to 738 and Ryman Healthcare up 2c to 232.

Xero rose 13c to 260 and NZX rose 6c to 155. OceanaGold fell 20c to 500 and Ecoya fell 8c to 65.

Charlie's rose to 19.2c after disclosing a trial of its products in stores in Hong Kong.

In the US the Dow Jones industrial average added 55.03 points to 11,533.16. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 7.52 points to 1254.6. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 18.05 points to 2667.61.

European shares climbed to a 27-month high in holiday-thinned trade on Tuesday, with record high copper prices on supply concerns helping mining stocks, though lower volumes had potential to exaggerate moves.

- NZPA