KEY POINTS:
Shares in market heavyweight Telecom fell a few cents after initially holding up when the company reported a 59 per cent fall in first-half net profit to $162 million.
The result was due to tougher competition and asset write-downs, and Telecom maintained its full year profit forecast and dividend.
Telecom's share price slipped 3c to 263 by the close as the benchmark NZSX-50 index settled up 0.628 points, or 0.023 per cent, at 2750.774. Turnover was worth $83m and there were 30 rises and 46 falls.
Fletcher Building, which reported a 27 per cent fall in profit a day earlier, rose 30c to 584.
Fletcher Building maintained its dividend and its result was mixed as expected, said Forsyth Barr broker Richard Burton said.
Telecom had a difficult operating environment and talked about a slowdown. The stock had had a strong rally into the result and the result was around what the market expected, he said.
In the United States, stocks staged a late rally after Reuters reported the Obama administration was working on a programme to subsidise mortgage payments for troubled homeowners.
On a day of the release of weak retail sales data for December, retailers were mixed.
The Warehouse rose 4c to 349 and Michael Hill eased 2c to 51. Hallenstein Glasson eased 2c to 219.
Fisher & Paykel Appliances eased 2c to 100 and Air NZ eased a cent to 94.
Infratil eased 2c to 178 and Mainfreight eased a cent to 387.
Steel & Tube, which reported a profit rise this week, rose 5c to 315.
Auckland Airport rose 1c to 191 and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rose 2c to 343.
NZ Refining eased 2c to 725. TrustPower rose 3c to 775. SkyTV rose 2c to 425.
The Dow Jones industrial average shed 6.77 points, or 0.09 per cent, to end at 7932.76. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 1.45 points, or 0.17 per cent, to 835.19. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 11.21 points, or 0.73 per cent, to 1541.71.
Before the rally in the last hour of trading, in which the Dow retraced 2.8 per cent, investor fears that a $789 billion economic stimulus package to be voted on as early as Friday would not be enough dig the economy out of recession weighed on Wall Street.
- NZPA
