21 Oct 2011

New Zealand sharemarket closes 9 points down

6:05 pm on 21 October 2011

The benchmark NZX 50 index lost 9 points in Friday's trading to close at 3281.

Turnover was $67 million.

Among the major movements: Telecom was down 2 cents at $2.55, Fletcher Building was up 7 cents to $6.41 and Contact Energy ended unchanged at $5.70.

Sky City Entertainment was up 4 cents at $3.47 and Sky Network TV was down 27 cents to $5.38 after its 2012 profit forecast fell short of analysts' expectations.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare lost 5 cents to $2.42 and The Warehouse rose 1 cent to $3.18.

Ebos Group ended the week up 1 cent to $6.56, Comvita up 3 cents to $2.64 and Hellaby's down 3 cents to $2.62.

In currency markets, at 5.20pm the NZ dollar was buying 79.16 US, 77.55 Australian, 50.13 pence, 60.8 Yen, and 0.5745 euro.

The TWI was at 69.38.