Higher wages and marketing costs have taken a slice out of Domino's first half balance sheet, with a poor performance by the pizza empire's Australian stores contributing to a 9.2 per cent slide in net profit to $53.3 million. Sales lifted 14.6 per cent for for the six months to December 30 with global revenue from continuing operations up 23.7 per cent to $702 million on 3.3 per cent same store growth. But Domino's half-year balance sheet was weighed down by $10.9 million in one-off legal and settlement costs in Australian and New Zealand, as well as $13 million to convert Germany's Hallo Pizza and Pizza Spirit in France to Domino's-branded stores. Marketing and employee expenses also jumped. Shares in Domino's dipped as much as 7.9 per cent to $42.29 at Wednesday's open, and were trading 5.53 per cent lower at $43.39 at 1045 AEDT, slightly better than a year ago. The company's share price had slumped to three-and-a-half year low of $38.70 in December.