KEY POINTS:
New Zealand's sharemarket closed on its lows today, following other markets as nervousness returned.
The sharemarket earlier looked headed for its fifth consecutive day of gains despite the troubles of another finance company, NZAX-listed Property Finance.
However, the benchmark index was unable to resist others' declines, including the Australian S&P/ASX 200 Index's 1 per cent fall and the Nikkei average's 0.4 per cent loss.
"We've seen some nervousness return to the market, I think profit-taking after two or three particularly good days on the upside," said Hamilton Hindin Greene partner Grant Williamson.
The NZSX-50 lost 0.9 per cent, or 36.67 points, to 4052.45 on turnover totalling $104 million. The top-50 gained 1.4 per cent yesterday.
Falls outnumbered rises 45 to 55.
"We're starting to see some Asian companies reporting what sort of exposure they have to the US subprime debt, and that is causing a bit of nervousness in those markets."
Christchurch-based Property Finance Group, with loans of more than $630 million, requested the suspension of its shares, just days after Nathans Finance was put into receivership.
"There's a lot of nervousness out there amongst debenture holders, and I'm sure there'll be lot of withdrawal requests going on for the finance companies, and not a lot of new money coming in the door," Mr Williamson said.
The finance sector was mixed, with Lombard Group shedding 17c to 123, and Tower down a cent at 230, but Dorchester Pacific up 3c at 115 following an upbeat annual meeting yesterday. Unchanged were Pyne Gould Corp, at 400, and Dominion Finance, at 165.
The blue chips were strictly negative, with Telecom down 5c at 428, Fletcher Building down 30c at 1145, Contact Energy off 15c at 930, Fisher & Paykel Appliances 5c lower at 360, and F&P Healthcare down 2c at 337.
Auckland Airport was down 6c at 311, after yesterday's nearly 11 per cent fall in annual net profit despite a rise in revenue.
"A number of analysts having had a look at the result are not overly impressed with it," Mr Williamson said.
Nuplex rose 5c to 660, despite posting a 58 per cent fall in annual profit.
"It was a pretty average result, but it was advised to the market some time ago," he said.
Provenco fell 8 per cent to 57c after sliding to a $5 million annual loss.
Air New Zealand lost 2c to 205, eating into yesterday's 7c recovery from a seven-month low.
NZX rose 10c to 1000, Rubicon was up 5c at 100, PGG Wrightson rose 4c to 187, and Hellaby was up 10c at 305.
Among dual-listed stocks, Westpac gained 88c to 3100, ANZ was up 15c at 3375, AMP lost 5c to 1150, and Lion Nathan shed 20c to 1000.
Earlier on Wall Street, stocks slipped as investors worried about the economic outlook after the head of the biggest US mortgage company said the housing downturn could create a recession.
- NZPA
