NZX-50 rises, then drops - again

The New Zealand sharemarket lifted in early trade after a strong rise by stocks in the United States, but by lunchtime the local market was firmly set in a nose-dive.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was up 9.97 points -- having ended up 2.9 points yesterday -- but it closed down 26.085 points at 3414.921, a drop of 0.758 percent for the day.

This was its eighth fall in 10 trading days, while its counterpart across the Tasman, the ASX200 index rose 55.2 points, or 1.2 percent.

Almost twice as many stocks fell in price on the NZX, compared with those which rose, a ratio 49 falls to 28 rises among the 111 stocks traded.

But among the top 50 stocks, the ratio of falls to rises was much higher.

A total of 49.6 million shares traded at a value of $105.7m.

Fletcher Building gained 6c early but finished down 1c at 842 on a volume of 1.8m shares, having fallen 12c yesterday.

Nuplex fell 4c to 290, Xero was up 3c to 220, NZ Refining Co fell 2c to 360, Sky TV lost 8c to 552, and cornerstone stock Telecom finished unchanged at 242.5, while Port of Tauranga lost 4c to 881.

Among the biggest losers were Mainfreight, down 18c to 1005, big box retailer The Warehouse down 9c to 341, and Trustpower, down 8c to 721. Freightway fell 5c to 320, while Vector dropped 4c to 251, and Contact Energy was down 3c to 535.

The Australian sharemarket rallied today, led by energy companies and miners, and the benchmark ASX200 index finished at 4529.5 points, up 55.2 (up 1.2 percent), at 4529.5, while the broader All Ordinaries index rose 56.6 points, or 1.3 percent, to 4579.8.

Nearly all sectors were in the black, with energy shares soaring 2.6 percent, materials up 1.9 percent and financials gaining 0.7 percent. Telcommunications and property trusts bucked the trend, dropping 0.6 percent and 0.3 pecent respectively.

In the US, stocks rose for a second day on optimism that a solution to Greece's debt crisis was near, although low volume indicated underlying nervousness in the market.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 1.2 percent to 12,188.69, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 1.3 percent to 1296.67, and the Nasdaq Composite Index added 1.5 percent to 2729.31.