Shares in casino operator SkyCity fell 3c early to 319 after the company said it had been unsuccessful in moves to buy the 50 percent of Christchurch Casino it does not own.SkyCity said it had advised Skyline Enterprises of a cash offer it was willing to
Shares in casino operator SkyCity fell 3c early to 319 after the company said it had been unsuccessful in moves to buy the 50 percent of Christchurch Casino it does not own.
SkyCity said it had advised Skyline Enterprises of a cash offer it was willing to make, but Skyline had rejected the approach.
Shares in Ebos Group, which reached a high of 760 early this month, tumbled 15c, or 2 percent, early to 730.
Fletcher Building dropped 5c to 810, Mainfreight was down 5c to 736, Nuplex slipped 2c to 341 and Pike River was down 2c to 99.
The market as a whole eased lower, following comments by Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard that the relatively high NZ dollar could make continued rebalancing of the economy difficult.
Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was down 3.56 points to 3318.21, having gained 5.4 points yesterday.
Cavalier Corp added 4c early to 315, Methven was up 2c to 188 and Sanford lifted 2c to 460.
In the United States, stocks closed lower thanks to significant gains in the US dollar against other currencies.
The greenback jumped about 1 percent as concerns grew that Ireland will need to ask other European countries for financial help, as Greece did earlier this year.
The stronger US dollar can hurt profits at US companies that do a lot of business in other countries.
According to preliminary calculations, the Dow Jones industrial average ended down 0.5 percent to close at 11,347, the S&P 500 was down 0.8 percent to 1213, while the Nasdaq was down 0.7 percent to 2563.
