New Zealand shares closed little changed on Friday as local investors ignored a positive lead from a rising Wall Street, dealers said. The benchmark NZX-50 index dropped 2.46 points to 2,656.39 on turnover worth 113.7 million dollars (63.9 million US). The number of falling stocks outnumbered gainers by 41 to 34. Market leader Telecom fell four cents to 2.59 dollars, down from an intraday high of 2.68.
Fletcher Building rose 18 cents to 6.32 dollars, with Smalley saying the focus could be turning to high-yielding stocks ahead of the central bank's next review of interest rates on Thursday. Contact Energy was down two cents at 5.58 dollars. In quarterly figures published Friday, Contact said it had 487,000 electricity customers at the end of March, down 5.8 percent from a year earlier.
Port of Tauranga fell 10 cents to 5.50 dollars, Sanford eased 15 cents to 5.50 and Tower eased two cents to 1.31. Casino operator Sky City fell three cents to 2.73 dollars and infrastructure investor Infratil was down four cents at 1.53. Carpet maker Cavalier rose five cents to 1.70 dollars and retailer Hallenstein Glassons rose six cents to 2.41.