On the positive side, Port of Tauranga, Sky City Entertainment and the NZX stood out.
Port of Tauranga's log volumes remained strong and good container volume growth in the first half of the financial year looked set to be assisted in the second half by the labour dispute at competitor Ports of Auckland.
Sky City's Auckland property benefited from recent capital expenditure, the Rugby World Cup and an improving economy.
NZX showed the operating leverage in its largely fixed-cost business mode. It also announced it would return the proceeds from an asset sale to shareholders, he said.
Interestingly, transport and logistics companies Freightways and Mainfreight delivered "quite different results" this time around.
Freightways delivered a strong result drive by its express package business, though sequential growth was expected to slow into the second half, Mr Timms said.
Mainfreight's result was a "clear disappointment" after its stellar results in the past two quarters. The European acquisition Wim Bosman performed poorly, causing forecast cuts and raising concerns about its value.
"Telecom's first result in its demerged form was a bit messy, but full-year 2012 guidance was reassuring and supported our thesis of lifting returns to shareholders through capital management."
Trade Me's inaugural result and guidance were in line with the prospectus forecasts, he said.
The slowing Australian east coast economy and euro zone region had affected listed companies on both sides of the Tasman.
While Chinese growth rates looked set to recover following some easing of bank lending restrictions and the economic data coming out of the United States appeared to be improving, it remained to be seen how companies and the market anticipated those in their outlooks, forecasts and share prices, Mr Timms said.
Ongoing earthquake activity in Canterbury was delaying rebuilding activity in the region, having differing impacts on companies.
EQC announced yesterday that the commission had paid out more than $3 billion following the Canterbury earthquakes, making the series of tremors one of the costliest natural disasters in history.
EQC chief executive Ian Simpson said the figure amounted to about a quarter of the estimated total liability of $12 billion, which would be paid out as EQC settled claims in the next two to three years.
Mr Timms said last year's Rugby World Cup appeared to have less impact on companies' earnings than anticipated as it either increased costs or displaced other business - Sky City excepted.
In Australia, where the market was dominated by resources and banking stocks, softening commodity prices in the second half of year were the main cause of lower profits for resources stocks in the period. Bank earnings growth moderated to about 7%, which was considerably slower than the middle of the past decade, he said.
The roll-off of bad debts had boosted banks' earnings growth over the recent reporting periods but that driver was slowing.
Market disruptions affected funding costs and market income, but Craigs expected that to be less of a drag in future.
CBA was the only major bank with a full result and it delivered another solid performance, Mr Timms said. ANZ's first-quarter update was best of the other three major banks.
BHP and Rio Tinto both released results that included more information on the extensive capital projects they would be undertaking over the next decade.
"Both companies have tried to assuage any concerns that super profits currently being earned have already been committed to future projects by noting that developments will be phased or staged and growth balanced with returns to shareholders."
Mr Timms said a rebound was expected in the second half of the 2012 financial year as a range of one-off factors passed for Australian-listed companies.
