The New Zealand sharemarket fell in early trading today in a quiet start to the week.At around 10.20am, the benchmark NZX-50 index was down 5.899 points, or 0.178 percent, at 3304.685.Westpac recorded the biggest loss falling 40c to 278, Fletcher Building
The New Zealand sharemarket fell in early trading today in a quiet start to the week.
At around 10.20am, the benchmark NZX-50 index was down 5.899 points, or 0.178 percent, at 3304.685.
Westpac recorded the biggest loss falling 40c to 278, Fletcher Building fell 5c to 785, the Warehouse fell 3c to 385, Nuplex eased 2c to 333 while Freightway fell 2c to 303.
Some companies made modest gains, including Trustpower which rose 2c to 742, Mainfreight which rose 1c to 740 and Tower -- up 1c to 187c.
Fishing company Sanford remained unchanged at 470 after it announced it had entered into a conditional agreement with Pacifica Seafoods to acquire its Greenshell mussel and Pacific Oyster businesses for $85 million.
Meanwhile, Infrastructure investor Infratil eased 1c to 187 following its announcement last week it was considering making a public bond offer.
In the US, Wall Street ended a five-week winning streak on Friday as the threat of rising interest rates in China prompted investors to book profits and reassess bullish positions in equities.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 90.52 points, or 0.80 percent, to 1119, the S&P 500 index slid 1.18 percent to 14.33 points and the Nasdaq dropped 1.46 percent to 2518.
