Shares claw back from falls to close flat

Photo / Kenny Rodger

The New Zealand sharemarket made up most of the ground lost early in a generally quiet session, with most focus on yesterday's bailout of South Canterbury Finance.

The NZX-50 index ended the session down 0.7 points at 3036.10, recovering from an earlier 15-point fall. The index gained 29 points on Monday when it benefited from a rebound in overseas market sentiment. South Canterbury Finance announced it was in receivership, having failed to find a buyer by yesterday's deadline, and the Government moved immediately to pay investors from the Crown guarantee scheme.

SCF securities were placed on a trading halt on Friday.

Blue-chip stocks were mixed, with Telecom up 1c at $2.06, Sky TV up 3c at $5.07, and Infratil 1c higher at $1.63, but Contact Energy was down 1c at $5.65, SkyCity down 3c at $2.87 and Vector off 3c at $2.13.

Fletcher Building lost 9c to $7.52, after figures out yesterday morning showed continued softness in building activity.

Air New Zealand, which is boosting capacity across its domestic network, fell 2c to $1.28.

NZ Oil and Gas lost 2c to $1.15, PGG Wrightson fell 1c to 54c, Steel & Tube was down 3c at $2.22, and Hallenstein Glasson lost 3c to $3.82.

On the other side of the ledger, Tower gained 2c to $1.85, TrustPower rose 5c to $7.25, Sanford was up 3c at $3.99, and Port of Tauranga gained 5c to $6.75. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 Index lost over 1 per cent to 4404.2.

Earlier, worries about the pace of economic recovery in the United States overshadowed data showing a rise in consumer spending, resulting in a negative day on the US sharemarket.

In New York, the Dow Jones fell 140.92 points, or 1.4 per cent, to close at 10,009.73. A report showed that personal incomes rose less than expected in July. That added to a series of discouraging economic indicators suggesting that growth could slow down in the second half of the year.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 15.67 points, or 1.5 per cent, to 1048.92, while the Nasdaq composite index fell 33.66 points, or 1.6 per cent, to 2119.97.

- NZPA