The New Zealand sharemarket was flat in early trading, following caution on Wall Street ahead of earnings reports from companies in the United States.After wobbling either side of yesterday's close in the first 15 minutes of trading today, the benchmark N
The New Zealand sharemarket was flat in early trading, following caution on Wall Street ahead of earnings reports from companies in the United States.
After wobbling either side of yesterday's close in the first 15 minutes of trading today, the benchmark NZX-50 index was up 0.06 of a point to 3012.09. Yesterday the index chalked up its seventh consecutive day of gains with a lift of 6.8 points but that was on very low volume.
Port of Tauranga rose 9c early to 695, NZ Refining Co gained 6c to 321, and Hellaby Holdings lifted 2c to 177, while dual-listed AMP fell 19c to 640.
Among leading shares Telecom was unchanged on 195, after rising 3c yesterday on a day in which there was continuing speculation in Australia about the sale of its AAPT unit. Fletcher Building was untraded early having closed yesterday at 771 and Contact Energy was unchanged on 582.
In the US, caution prevailed, with indexes edging higher as investors kept bets to a minimum in front of the earnings reports.
Volume was among the lightest of the year with investors wanting to see if corporate outlooks validate last week's surge, the strongest week in a year. Dow component Alcoa Inc reported better than expected second-quarter results after the closing bell.
The Dow Jones industrial average added 0.2 percent to end at 10,216.27, the Standard&Poor's 500 Index edged up 0.1 percent to 1078.75, and the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.1 percent to close at 2198.36.
