Telecom's woes with its XT network dominated the New Zealand sharemarket in what was generally a flat day.Overall, the benchmark NZX-50 index ended the day down 3.387 points, or 0.1% at 3126.367. Turnover of 27.4 million stocks was worth $59.3 million.The
Telecom's woes with its XT network dominated the New Zealand sharemarket in what was generally a flat day.
Overall, the benchmark NZX-50 index ended the day down 3.387 points, or 0.1% at 3126.367. Turnover of 27.4 million stocks was worth $59.3 million.
There were 37 rises and 36 falls.
The big story of the day was Telecom, which saw most of the action. Five times as many Telecom stocks were traded as the next highest, AMP Office.
"It is the ongoing PR battle over XT, but the announcement they came out with today was pretty significant and we saw some financial impact," said Craigs Investment Partner's research analyst Mark Lister.
The company said its compensation package for affected XT users would cost $10 million. It also changed its earnings forecast for the full year from the "bottom half" of a $400-440 million range to the "lower end."
"The market is probably reading a bit into it," Mr Lister said. The shares fell 6c, or 2.5%, to $2.30.
Apart from Telecom it was "basically a flat market," although a couple of property stocks rebounded after a weak run following speculation on changes to property tax rules, he said.
Contact Energy today said its underlying earnings after tax for the half year were up just 0.3% from a year earlier to $80.1 million, as high hydro inflows resulted in low wholesale prices. Shares dropped 8c to $5.72.
Other stocks to lose ground were Infratil, down 1c to $1.60, Hallenstein Glasson 5c to $3.50 and Freightways 6c to $2.96.
Kiwi Income Property Trust unchanged at 98c.
A number of stocks rose today, including Nuplex, up 7c to $340, AMP Office Trust 2c to 73c and Auckland Airport 1c to $1.89.
Fletcher Building was up 5c to $7.85, Sky City Entertainment gained 4c to $3.24 and Sky TV also lifted 4c, to $4.86
Goodman Property was up 2c to $1.01, Fisher & Paykel Appliances rose 1c to 61c and Air New Zealand was up 1c to $1.34.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 stock average fell 68.96 points, or 0.7%, to 10,331.51. Toyota shares lost about 1%, in line with the broader market's losses, a day after disclosing it was the target of US criminal and regulatory investigations in connection with its recent safety problems.
In the US, the Dow fell 18.97, or 0.2%, to 10,383.38. The S&P 500 index fell 1.16, or 0.1%, to 1108.01 and the Nasdaq composite index fell 1.84, or 0.1%, to 2242.03.
