NZ sharemarket flat early
The New Zealand sharemarket was flat in early trading, following the lead of the United States where an initial rise in stocks fizzled on doubts over corporate profits.
The New Zealand sharemarket was flat in early trading, following the lead of the United States where an initial rise in stocks fizzled on doubts over corporate profits.
In this country the benchmark NZX-50 index was up 0.43 points to 3458.05 in quiet trading around 10.15am, having gained 6.3 points yesterday.
Carpet maker Cavalier Corp fell 4c early to 345, Contact Energy was down 1c to 582, Telecom slipped 0.5c to 197.5, Vector gained 4c to 243, Mainfreight lifted 4c to 934, and Fletcher Building edged up 1c to 929.
Jeweller Michael Hill International was untraded early after reporting an 8.6 percent rise in same store sales to $359.7 million in the nine months to the end of March. The shares closed at 89 yesterday.
The lacklustre performance by stocks in the US came despite strong profit growth from JPMorgan Chase&Co, the No 2 US bank.
Analysts questioned whether the results from JPMorgan, the first major Wall Street bank to report this quarter, were a one-time win or a harbinger of others' performance.
"People are getting the sense that no matter what these companies say, the easy money has already been made so it will be tough to see further upward movement," said Rick Fier, vice president at Conifer Securities in New York, which has about $US7 billion in assets under administration.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.1 percent to 12,270.99, the Standard&Poor's 500 Index inched up 0.02 percent to 1314.41, and the Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.6 percent to 2761.52.
NZPA
Thu, 14 Apr 2011
Thu, 14 Apr 2011
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NZ sharemarket flat early
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