KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket slipped early before recovering in line with Telecom, which was sold off on a lack of positive surprises in its quarterly result before finishing square.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed up 15.68 points, or 0.4 per cent, at 4202.67, on heavy turnover totalling $216.2 million. Rises outnumbered falls 59 to 40.
"It started off very average, held back at the start after the Telecom announcement ... but since that's come back to an even keel, the rest of the market's firmed further," said Don Lewthwaite of First NZ Capital.
Telecom, the largest listed company, declared a $1.1 billion share cancellation at its third quarter report but couldn't give guidance on earnings or spending plans amid ongoing uncertainty.
Nine-month net profit was $690m against a loss of $244m a year earlier.
Telecom shares closed unchanged at 487, having traded between 482 and 490.
"Broadly in line with what we were expecting, and certainly what the market was expecting in terms of both the earnings and the capital return, so no shocks whatsoever there," Mr Lewthwaite said.
"It's just a hard market to impress, so the fact that there were no positive surprises or no CEO announcements meant that it was just greeted with a bit of a grunt and sold off slightly."
More spectacular was fellow blue chip, Auckland International Airport, which hit a record high of 263 before closing up 7c at 261.
"It's trading well above our fundamental valuation, but it's such a well-placed stock it's pretty hard to get much selling in it," he said.
"It's a proven performer plus a good portfolio stock, so would-be sellers or holders tend to hold on."
Other tourism-related stocks also fared well, with Air New Zealand up 6c at 281 and takeover target Tourism Holdings up 2c at 273.
Fletcher Building rose 10c to 1140, Contact Energy was up 4c at 888, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare fell 2c to 381 and F&P Appliances was up a cent at 356.
NZ Refining continued its good run this week, rising 23c to 725.
Investment company Kingfish was unchanged at 152 after posting a 95 per cent rise in annual profit.
Stocks in Kingfish's portfolio were a mixed bag today, with Pumpkin Patch up 13c at 448, Mainfreight down 15c at 715, Rakon up 2c at 480, and Ryman Healthcare a cent higher at 242.
Among dual-listed stocks, ANZ jumped 53c to 3475, Lion Nathan fell 15c to 1030, and AMP rose 5c to 1210.
Westpac reversed earlier gains to close down 7c at 3043, as the market digested an underwhelming New Zealand contribution to the bank's interim profit.
- NZPA