KEY POINTS:
The sharemarket ended the week on a lukewarm note, as a week of company reports met but failed to exceed expectations.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed up 3.64 points or 0.08 per cent to 4206.31 on a $126 million total turnover.
ABN Amro Craigs broker Matt Willis said the start of reporting season and some M&A action had not had much impact on the index, but it had been a busy week for volumes.
"We've had quite a big week with the NZX result, Contact, Telecom, some of the big stocks of the market reporting, and everything's broadly in line with expectations".
The exception has been Contact Energy which fell another 13c to 875 today. The stock has lost 43c in total this week after an operational update.
Contact, like fellow power generating company Trustpower, had had a good run, and were now facing short-term volatility over issues like power prices and renewable energy, Mr Willis said.
"Most of them have traded ahead of valuations and now both Contact and Trustpower are below our valuations. "
Trustpower closed up 5c to 803 today.
Telecom and Fletcher Building also dominated trading by value, with Fletcher up 10c to 1150 and Telecom up a cent to 488 after a largely predictable third quarter result yesterday.
Some currency sensitive stocks appeared to benefit from a slightly weaker New Zealand dollar including Michael Hill, up 10c to 940, F&P Appliances, up 3c to 359 and PGG Wrightson up 2c to 173.
Infratil, which has airport assets off and onshore, was up 9c to 610 but it might also be enjoying leveraging off the re-rating of Auckland Airport, Mr Willis said.
AIA closed up 5c to a new high of 266, while fellow tourism stock Air NZ was up 3c to 284.
On the downside, the Warehouse slumped 10c to 685, and Mainfreight and Pumpkin Patch rested from solid rises yesterday, down 2c to 713 and 3c to 445 respectively.
A strong result from investment fund Kingfish yesterday saw the stock rise 5c today to 157. Kingfish's net annual profit rose 95 per cent to $36.8 million on the back of an increased property portfolio.
Other moves included F&P Healthcare down 6c to 375, Tower NZ down 9c to 211, and inplay stock Canwest Mediaworks up 4c to 234.
Rises outnumbered falls 54 to 41 on 145 stocks traded.
- NZPA