Sky City shares rise but stock falls

File photo / NZ Herald

Investors punished Sky City shares despite a solid profit today, and were unwilling to cut other top stocks any slack ahead of their results as prospects of a poor earnings season weighed on the New Zealand sharemarket.

Sky City shares initially rose 4c after reporting a 12 per cent rise in underlying full year net profit and a significantly increased final dividend of 9.25c per share. However, the stock closed down 3.3 per cent, or 10c, at 289 as the market digested the patchy performance of the flagship Auckland casino, and soft economies on both sides of the Tasman.

"I think Auckland disappointed slightly, and it's the biggest part of the business, and a lot of people have taken their steer from it," said David Price of Forsyth Barr.

Fellow blue chip Fletcher Building shed 5c to 718 ahead of its annual result tomorrow.

Financial results so far had been generally weak, Mr Price said, and people were realising that economic growth could be underwhelming for longer than initially feared.

Other stocks to report results today were NZ Refining, which saw interim profit fall a better-than-expected 45 per cent, and market operator NZX, which said after the market closed that first half profit plunged 91 per cent. Allowing for one-off gains from asset sales a year earlier, NZX said the result was flat. Friday will give a good indication of the state of play, with Telecom, Contact Energy, Sky TV and jeweller Michael Hill reporting annual results.

The benchmark NZX-50 index closed down 16.98 points, or 0.6 per cent, at 3006.55, having gained more than 8 points yesterday.

Telecom was flat at 207, Contact Energy shares slipped 8c to 574, Auckland Airport fell 2c to 194, Sky TV was down 6c at 495, and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare lost 7c to 280.

Freightways was among the few stocks to rise, adding to yesterday's gains which came after the company said the second half was an improvement over the first six months.

Freightways shares gained 6c to 281, joining NZ Refining, up 18c at 318, NZ Farming Systems Uruguay, up a cent at 64, ING Property, up a cent at 69, and Abano Healthcare, up 3c at 531.

NZX closed down 3c at 141 ahead of its result.

Among dual-listed stocks, ANZ was up 50c at 2850, Westpac rose 149 to 2999, AMP was flat at 680, and Telstra was also flat, at 375.

Australia's S&P/ASX-200 Index was up 0.9 per cent at 4479.

Earlier in the United States, investors found little reason to buy stocks, suggesting that even several days of losses had not convinced institutions share prices are attractive.

- NZPA