9 May 2014

Sharemarket little changed on Friday

5:54 pm on 9 May 2014

The sharemarket was little changed on Friday, with the NZX 50 Index falling 8 points to 5152.

Trustpower shares rose 3 cents to $7.05 after the company posted a 7 percent fall in annual net profit to just over 115 million dollars.

Chief executive Vince Hawksworth said the weaker result reflected lower generation in New Zealand and a challenging retail environment.

He said the North Island generation has been affected by low inflows with drought affecting all sorts of industries as well as farmers.

The volume of Trustpower's electricity sales fell 5 percent in the year ended March although the company said mass market sales picked up in the second half.

Meanwhile, listed power companies have rebounded after a sell off on Thursday.

Mighty River Power was up 1 percent to $2.26,

Genesis Energy was up point 2 percent to $1.82 and Meridian Energy gained 3 percent to $1.19.

On the currency markets, the New Zealand dollar was little changed.

ANZ senior foreign exchange manager Sam Tuck said the Reserve Bank financial stability report and the Budget could be key events for the dollar next week.

"There's also the RBNZ financial stability review on Wednesday, the day before the Budget, which will be important as we'd expect them to continue to highlight links between the New Zealand dollar and our economic strength."

At about 5pm, the New Zealand dollar was buying 86.36 US cents, 92.30 Australian, 51.03 pence, 87.86 yen and 0.6240 euro.