KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket reversed yesterday's gains, although middle-ranked stocks Rakon and Methven hit record highs after posting stellar results.
James Porteous of ABN Amro Craigs said the day's trading had been fairly drab, although turnover was moderate at $119.8 million.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index was off 24.16 points, or 0.6 per cent, at 4214.78, with falls outnumbering rises 64 to 54.
"It's just really following on from overseas. It was just looking like it was running out of a bit of steam," Mr Porteous said.
Infrastructure investor Infratil continued its record run after yesterday's annual result showed profit rose more than four-fold to $34.7m.
"I just think (investors) like the overseas and renewables content, and the depth and soundness of management," Mr Porteous said.
Infratil was up 7c at 652, 3c below its earlier record high.
GPS maker Rakon shot up 21c to a record high of 523 after it forecast revenue in 2008 would double despite battling the strong kiwi dollar.
Rakon's stock has been a strong performer since listing at 240 a year ago.
"I think most people have a buy and hold attitude towards the company," he said.
Methven rose 14c to a record 240, after the bathroom products maker reported a 7.9 per cent rise in annual net profit to $7.3m.
"In what is a tough business, to be up 7.9 per cent on last year looks pretty good to me," Mr Porteous said.
Also reporting today was electricity distributor Vector, which rose 2c to 286 after announcing nine-month net profit after tax was up 18.4 per cent at $39.6m.
"It's a solid utility, but you've seen them branch out now that the Government's let lines companies do some minor investment in the generation side.
"The announcement that they've become a cornerstone shareholder in NZ Windfarms is regarded as mostly quite good by the market. It's a more flexible area for them to go into."
Telecom was down 7c at 476, Fletcher Building was down 5c at 1184, Contact Energy shed 5c to 865, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare fell 14c to 358 and F&P Appliances was up 2c at 369.
Air New Zealand rose 10c to 285, Auckland Airport was down 4c at 264, Pumpkin Patch fell 5c to 425 and The Warehouse fell 5c to 670.
- NZPA