NZ sharemarket sags early
Leading stocks step back as dollar holds close to post-float high.
The New Zealand sharemarket sagged in early trading as leading stocks stepped back, while the NZ dollar continued to hold near the post-float high around US82.60c reached yesterday.
Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was down 4.81 points to 3542.83, after gaining 4.7 points yesterday and 15 points on Monday.
Fletcher Building was down 2c early today to 891, Telecom slipped 1c to 241, and Contact Energy dropped 4c to 596.
Other shares falling early included Sanford down 4c to 596, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare down 3c to 285, Sky City down 2c to 365, and Steel & Tube down 2c to 263.
Cavalier Corp lost 5c early to 390, and Trustpower fell 5c to 735, both on low volume.
Investors continued to be keen on Mainfreight, pushing its shares up 6c early to 1009, after they reached a record 1014 during intraday trading yesterday. Freightways gained 2c to 332, and F&P Appliances added 1.5c to 63.5c.
In the US, Wall St bulls took the upper hand with a 1 percent rally as hopes for a new plan to deal with Greece's debt crisis relieved some investor worry, but grim economic data suggested more hurdles ahead.
Data on US Midwestern factory demand and consumer confidence was lacklustre.
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 1 percent to 12,569.79, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 1.1 percent to 1345.20, and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 1.4 percent to 2835.30.
For May, the Dow lost 1.9 percent and the Nasdaq fell 1.3 percent. The S&P fell 1.4 percent, its worst month since August, when the US Federal Reserve announced the second round of its quantitative easing programme.
NZPA
Wed, 01 Jun 2011
Wed, 01 Jun 2011
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NZ sharemarket sags early
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