ROCK BUILDING SOCIETY Battered but still standing Shares in The Rock Building Society are trading around record lows as concerns about rising funding costs and asset quality hurt the outlook of building societies and credit unions. Rock released its half-year results on Wednesday, booking a slide in profit for the six months to December to $2.24 million, compared with $2.27 in the prior corresponding period. The group managed to secure an additional $100 million securitisation warehouse funding facility from Westpac late last year, and claimed it was positioned it to withstand the current turmoil in financial markets. Despite uncertainty in the sector, Rock managed to open eight new agencies over the past half year, and booked a 0.5 per cent increase in retail deposit growth. Rock is forecasting full-year profit broadly in line with its fiscal 2008 result. Khia Mercer K&