KEY POINTS:
A 5 per cent fall in Fletcher Building to a two-year low dragged down the sharemarket in early trading today.
The company reaffirmed it expected a full-year net profit of between $450 million and $460m, including $58m of one-off gains, provided there was no significant change in economic conditions.
Fletcher shares fell 48c to $8.02 but then recovered to $8.15.
They had fallen 40 per cent from $13.42 on May 24 last year to $8.02, while the top 50 index had fallen 16 per cent over the same period.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index was down 22 points to 3647 at 10.20am.
Market leader Telecom was down 4c to 390 while Contact Energy was up 4c to 889.
Media reports said Britain's BG Group, in the midst of a takeover for Contact's 51 per cent owner, Origin Energy of Australia, has already lined up a trade buyer for the stake.
- NZPA sources expect that buyer to be China Light & Power.
Infratil was down 3c to 232 after the infrastructure investor reported a net loss of $1.7m for the year to the end of March, compared to a profit of $68.2m last year.
This fall was due to a $73.3m turnaround in accounting revaluations which last year contributed a $60.8m gain and this year a $12.5m loss, the company said today.
The company considers its key figure for comparison to be the operating surplus before tax, which rose 131 per cent to $87.8m from $32.4m in 2007.
Fisher & Paykel Appliances fell 4c to 258 while Hallenstein Glasson fell 8c to 325 and Mainfreight was down 7c to 682.
The Warehouse, still awaiting the result of a court case to determine in Foodstuffs and or Woolworths can bid to own it, was up 3c to 529.
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On Wall Street, United States stock markets finished mixed as economic surveys suggested economic growth would remain weak, but that the world's biggest economy may avoid a recession.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 41.20 points (0.32 per cent) higher at 13,028.00 just after the closing bell was rung at the New York Stock Exchange.
The Nasdaq composite lost 12.76 points (0.50 per cent) to 2516.09 and the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 1.18 points (0.08 per cent) to a preliminary close of 1426.53.
- NZPA