The New Zealand sharemarket was little changed for most of today's session but slipped to close lower on a day in which markets in Asia were weak.The benchmark NZX-50 index ended down 17.508 points, or 0.5%, at 3287.461 as the Australian market traded dow
The New Zealand sharemarket was little changed for most of today's session but slipped to close lower on a day in which markets in Asia were weak.
The benchmark NZX-50 index ended down 17.508 points, or 0.5%, at 3287.461 as the Australian market traded down 1%.
Turnover was worth $97.11 million. There were 35 rises and 53 falls among the 118 stocks traded.
Fletcher Building fell 9c to $8.43 after announcing late in the session that 120 jobs would go in its Australian insulation business due to a change in a government home insulation scheme.
Telecom rose 3c to $2.18 and Nuplex rose 3c to $3.26.
Allied Farmers was a feature of the session, rising 1.4c to 8.3c after announcing property sales netted the company $3.4 million.
"Although it is not a huge amount of money it is slightly positive that they are managing to sell some of the properties," said Grant Williamson at Hamilton Hindin Greene.
He said there was steady buying in Vector, which rose 2c to $2.15, and SkyCity, which closed up 1c at $3.23.
Contact Energy fell 6c to $6.18, though brokers said there was little new in March operational data.
NZ Refining rose 1c to $3.81 on a day that it withstood a challenge from a shareholder relating to processing arrangements with oil company customers.
Turners Auctions, which held its annual meeting today, was unchanged at $1.46.
NZX fell 2c to $1.80, Mainfreight fell 5c to $6.60, TrustPower fell 2c to $7.45 and Air NZ fell 1c to $1.37. SkyTV fell 2c to $5.10.
Hellaby rose 2c to $1.60, APN News rose 2c to $1.60 and The Warehouse rose 1c to $3.82.
