The New Zealand sharemarket was down in early trading as leading stocks Fletcher Building and Telecom both slipped.Fletcher Building reversed its gain yesterday with a 3c fall to 849, while Telecom edged down 1c to 214, and Contact Energy was unchanged on
The New Zealand sharemarket was down in early trading as leading stocks Fletcher Building and Telecom both slipped.
Fletcher Building reversed its gain yesterday with a 3c fall to 849, while Telecom edged down 1c to 214, and Contact Energy was unchanged on 624.
Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was down 3.27 points to 3301.7, having yesterday closed up 11.9 points.
Among shares losing ground early, Ebos Group dropped 5c to 640, Pumpkin Patch fell 4c to 225, Scott Technology was down 4c to 128, Cavalier Corp was down 2c to 274, and NZX fell 2c to 180.
NZ Refining Co rose 4c to 384 on thin volume ahead of its annual meeting today.
Among other shares chalking up early gains, Port of Tauranga gained 4c to 690, Mainfreight lifted 3c to 668, Sky TV added 3c to 515, Tower added 2c to 203 and Nuplex was up 2c to 325.
In the United States, stocks finished little changed as disappointing outlooks from healthcare companies offset strong earnings from Morgan Stanley and Apple Inc.
Healthcare stocks took a beating after both Abbott Laboratories and Gilead Sciences Inc cut profit forecasts. Both Abbott and Gilead cited the impact of costs from US healthcare reform in their outlooks.
The Dow Jones industrial average edged up 0.1 percent to 11,124.92, the Standard&Poor's 500 Index dipped 0.1 percent to 1205.94, and the Nasdaq Composite Index inched up 0.2 percent to 2504.61.
