12 May 2012

NZ sharemarket falls at end of week

2:03 pm on 12 May 2012

The New Zealand sharemarket's benchmark NZX 50 index fell 21 points (0.6%) lower on Friday, finishing the week at 3548.

Guiness Peat Group was unchanged at 49.5 cents as the Shareholders' Association urges investors not to vote for the re-election of Sir Ron Brierley as chairman.

Fletcher Building rose 2 cents to $6.12, and telecommunications spin-off Chorus lifted 2 cents to $3.22.

Sky Network TV rose 4 cents to $5.55, Fisher and Paykel Healthcare rose 2 cents at $2.32, and Auckland Airport fell 1 cent to $2.59,

The Warehouse rose 6 cents to $2.67 after third quarter sales lifted more than 3 percent, and

Trustpower was up 2 cents to $7.71 after its full year profit rose 17 percent to $131.5m on a turnover of $71 million.

But cornerstone stock Telecom slumped 8 cents to $2.59, and Sky City dived 18 cents to $3.72 after issuing a profit downgrade, saying its full year profit will in the low "$140 millions".

Contact Energy fell 7 cents to $4.80.

At the end of the business week, the NZ dollar was trading at 78.45 US cents, 77.97 Australian cents, 48.65 pence, 62.62 yen and 0.6068 euro. The trade-weighted index, a basket of currencies used by key trading partners, was at 70.49 points.