KEY POINTS:
The sharemarket fell almost 1 per cent today, but it recouped earlier heavy losses after another rough session on Wall St overnight and falls around the region.
The NZSX-50 benchmark index closed down 0.9 per cent, or 36.5 points, at 3926.1 on turnover totalling $94.4 million. The index was earlier down 60 points.
The Warehouse tumbled 73c, or nearly 12 per cent, to 547 after the Commerce Commission said this morning it was seeking leave to appeal a court ruling overturning its ban on Foodstuffs or Woolworths launching takeovers.
Under normal market conditions, the market might not take such a harsh view, said Macquarie Equities NZ investment director Arthur Lim.
"It is not a foregone conclusion, given the strength of the judgement that was delivered, that they will get leave to appeal," he said.
Sky City lost 9c to 452 after investors were underwhelmed by the appointment of experienced casino executive Nigel Morrison as chief executive. It provided some certainty after a period of being leaderless, but the appointment came as the market expected a takeover bid.
"The market's probably saying the appointment's not until March, so that is still about three months away and in that time it might be that he finds he actually hasn't got a job to come to," Mr Lim said.
Telecom reversed earlier losses to close up 5c at 436, Fletcher Building was down 19c at 1107, Contact Energy shed 18c to 810.
Auckland Airport, whose board yesterday urged investors to reject the Canadian Pension Plan's partial bid even though it was assessed above valuations, gained a cent to 275.
"I think there is a view emerging that investors accept the offer might not get scaled back too badly," he said, given that the larger shareholders were unlikely to accept.
Mr Lim noted selling across the board, even in defensive listed property stocks in the wake of trouble yesterday for Australian mall manager Centro Properties.
Kiwi Income Property Trust was down 5c at 130, ING Property Trust fell 3c to 104, Goodman Property Trust lost 6c to 136, National Property Trust was down 2c at 59c, and AMP Office Trust fell 2c to 117.
NZ Farming Systems Uruguay listed below its 150 per share recent capital raising today, closing down 8c at 142.
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was down 4c at 327, F&P Appliances was flat at 335, Nuplex fell 18c to 670, Sanford was down 13c at 380, Mainfreight shed 15c to 660, and Rakon fell 10c to 370.
Pumpkin Patch was up 2c at 245, Freightways rose 4c to 366, Tower was up a cent at 230, and Vector gained a cent to 228.
Australia's benchmark index had earlier been down nearly 2 per cent, but was 0.4 per cent lower at 6239. Japan's Nikkei share average was down 0.3 per cent.
On Wall Street, US stocks tumbled as investors fretted about tight credit conditions despite a new Federal Reserve credit auction valued at US$20 billion ($26.7 billion) for stretched commercial banks.
- NZPA
