KEY POINTS:
A slide to one-month lows for top stocks Telecom and Contact Energy depressed the New Zealand sharemarket today, in contrast to solid gains for markets around the region.
The NZSX-50 benchmark index closed down 40.43 points, or 0.9 per cent, at 4226.71, on turnover totalling just $88 million. Falls outnumbered rises 62 to 40.
"Our market bucked the trend really. We were down, but mainly around company-specific news like Contact," said Philip Hunter of First NZ Capital.
Telecom fell 11c, or 2.5 per cent, to a month low of 431 after announcing an undertaking to have fast broadband to every town in the country within four years. Telecom will spend $1.4 billion on its next generation network and fast broadband over five years.
Contact Energy fell 19c, or 2 per cent, to 905 after it told shareholders that earnings would be flat, as the company battled high gas prices and low wholesale power prices.
"They just reiterated that the environment was going to be a bit tougher this year, so the market took that as a cue to just bring the stock price back a bit," Mr Hunter said.
Sky City was down 2c to 540 after it said it was quitting the sale of its Adelaide casino while bidders sized the company up. It said it was comfortable with its August projection of a 10-12 per cent increase in profit in fiscal 2008.
NZX jumped 19c to 950 after it reported a 49 per cent rise in third quarter net profit to $2.29m.
Mainfreight rose 8c to 740, while Freightways lost a cent to 379 after yesterday's warning that domestic trading remained tough.
"A lot of companies are holding their AGMs at the moment, so that's setting the tone a little bit," Mr Hunter said.
"The market's looking for forward commentaries coming out of the AGMs and for profit guidance, and the general tone is that the domestic economy is getting a little bit tougher, costs are coming up a bit and margins are getting squeezed."
Auckland Airport fell 5c to 306, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was flat at 328, F&P Appliances shed 12c to 345, and NZ Refining fell 15c at 741.
Air New Zealand was down 2c at 212, Rakon was 9c lower at 526, Pumpkin Patch fell 3c to 305, and Fletcher Building was off 8c at 1218.
PGG Wrightson rose a cent to 203, Ryman gained 4c to 215, Tourism Holdings was up 4c at 236, Nuplex gained 8c to 758, and Trustpower rose 10c to 950.
Among dual-listed stocks, ANZ was down 45c at 3555, Westpac rose 30c to 3470, AMP lost 9c to 1221, and Lion Nathan fell 7c at 1083.
Australia's benchmark index rose 1 per cent to 6693 as strong world prices for metals and oil boosted resource stocks, and Japan's Nikkei average also gained 1 per cent.
On Wall Street, stocks fell after disappointing results from Comcast and engine maker Cummins fed worries about corporate profits, while fears of more credit losses hit financial shares.
- NZPA