KEY POINTS:
The sharemarket lost ground in early trading today after Wall Street fell again.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index was down 14.5 points to 4170.9 at 10.20am after holding up relatively well yesterday compared with other Asian markets with a 20 point drop.
Turnover was light at $22 million with the 13 stocks up outnumbered by the 23 falls.
The Warehouse rose 2c to 530 after reporting what appeared as a weak quarterly sales report. First quarter sales fell 1.7 per cent from a year earlier with the company saying consumer electronics were particularly disappointing.
Top stock Telecom fell 5c to 433 following a strong run this week on the back of the government regulator ruling rivals must pay a higher than previously indicated amount for local loop unbundling.
Among the other leaders, Fletcher Building was down 3c to 1160 and Contact Energy was steady on 907.
Auckland Airport fell 3c to 313 as doubts mount about the likelihood of the Canadian Pension Fund partial bid at $3.6555 a share.
Another in-play stock, Sky City was down 4c to 543.
Exporter Rakon fell 9c to 506, continuing its choppy run this week, while Hallenstein Glasson was up 6c to 445 and Cavalier up 3c to 308.
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On Wall Street, blue chips closed lower but well off their session lows, helped by a recovery in beaten-down financial shares, but the Nasdaq ended deep in the red following troubling comments from Cisco on business spending.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 33.73 points, or 0.25 per cent, to end unofficially at 13,266.29. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index eased 0.87 of a point to finish unofficially at 1474.75 and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 52.76 points, or 1.92 per cent, to close unofficially at 2696.00.
- NZPA