KEY POINTS:
Telecom shares slipped to a 15-year low today, but along with the market as a whole the company managed to claw back early losses to end ahead.
The benchmark NZSX-50 closed up 12.91 points at 3331.02. There were 38 rises and 47 falls and volume was worth $92.73m.
Telecom closed up 7c at 329 after falling as low as 315 as the market opened weaker on the back of a fall on Wall Street overnight.
"It has been a pretty quiet day all around," said Adrian Vance at Hamilton Hindin Greene.
Sky TV fell 10c to 493 after reporting a 25.5 per cent increase in full year net profit to $97.7m.
"The result looked pretty good and the stock has been creeping up ahead of it so there was a bit of profit-taking," Mr Vance said.
Tourism Holdings was down 1c to 141 after reporting full year net profit up 7 per cent to $14.3m .
Fisher and Paykel Appliance traded as low as 183 today after plunging 11.5 per cent to 185 on Monday on the signalling of a loss due to restructuring charges. The stock closed unchanged at 188.
Port of Tauranga rose 6c to 698 after Ports of Auckland said it had approached the company about buying its container business. NorthPort rose 3c to 283.
Fletcher Building rose 23c to 703 after dropped 5c in early trading.
Tower rose 1c to 230 on a day it faced a price query from the ASX.
Sanford fell 15c to 600 as the recent rally in the New Zealand dollar knocked sentiment for exporters.
SkyCity eased 6c to 350, Vector eased 2c at 228. Opus rose 1c to 18c and Charlies eased 0.3c to 12.7c.
Contact eased 3c to 860.
US stocks fell for a second straight session as credit worries hit bank shares and a report showing inflation remains a threat despite slower growth stoked the market's anxiety.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 1.14 per cent to 11,348.55. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index slid 0.93 per cent to 1266.69. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 1.35 per cent to 2384.36.
- NZPA