KEY POINTS:
The sharemarket drifted lower in early trading today with market leader Telecom easier and yesterday's star, Tourism Holdings, back three cents.
The NZSX-50 index was down 5.81 points to 4188.83 at 10.20am.
Telecom was down 1c to 482 after gaining 4c yesterday. The Government rejected a Commerce Commission recommendation to regulate mobile phone charges and instead accepted offers from Telecom and Vodafone to lower them over the next five years.
Telecom was expected to report a flat net profit of $225 million on Thursday.
Tourism Holdings was down 3c to 271 having risen 47c yesterday in response to a surprise, friendly, $277m takeover bid from Australian investor MFS Living and Leisure.
Yesterday's price was a seven-year high but was below the 280-per share cash bid.
Elsewhere on the market, Fletcher Building gained 1c to 1141, Contact Energy fell 5c to 905 to add to yesterday's 4c loss, despite news that its share of accessible gas from the depleting Maui field had been revised up.
Air New Zealand, which ran up strongly last month, was off 5c to 278.
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rose 1c to 274 to add to yesterday's 8c gain.
NZX was up 4c to 1010 after reporting a strong first quarter result late last week and despite today reporting weak trading data for April.
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In the US, stocks closed lower as investors locked in profits on some of April's big gainers, such as Caterpillar, at the end of Wall Street's strongest month in three years.
The S&P and Nasdaq Composite indices were each up more than 4 per cent in April while the Dow rose nearly 6 per cent and topped the 13,000 mark for the first time, as companies' quarterly results overwhelmingly beat analysts' lowered profit expectations.
The Dow Jones industrial average ended the day down 58.03 points, or 0.44 per cent, at 13,062.91. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index closed down 11.70 points, or 0.78 per cent, at 1482.37.
The Nasdaq Composite Index ended down 32.12 points, or 1.26 per cent, to 2525.09.
- NZPA