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Sharemarket eases in early trading

The New Zealand sharemarket opened slightly down this morning, failing to build on yesterday's gains.The benchmark NZX-50 index closed yesterday up 1.26 percent at 3195.803, helped by a recovery in Fletcher Building shares.However, in opening trading this

NZPA
Fri, 14 May 2010

The New Zealand sharemarket opened slightly down this morning, failing to build on yesterday's gains.

The benchmark NZX-50 index closed yesterday up 1.26 percent at 3195.803, helped by a recovery in Fletcher Building shares.

However, in opening trading this morning the index dropped 6 points, or 0.19 percent, to 3189.801, as the number of stocks in negative outweighed those on the improve.

Guinness Peat Group was down 1c to 84, AMP Office lost 1c to 74 and Goodman Property Group shed 1c to 97.

Kiwi Income Property Trust was down 1c to 98, Sky City slipped 3c to 300 and Cavalier dipped 2c to 253.

Steel&Tube slid 2c to 258, NZ Oil&Gas evaporated 1c to 152 and Hellaby Holdings dropped 1c to 165.

Telecom was unchanged at 211, as was Rakon at 99.

Stocks gaining this morning were Telstra, up 5c to 378, TrustPower earning 5c to 735, Fletcher Building, continuing to rise, up 5c to 813 and Auckland Airport, up 1c to 198.

Meanwhile, US stocks fell on Thursday as downbeat comments on the economy from tech company Cisco Systems Inc and retail chain Kohl's Corp cast doubt on the strength of the US recovery.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 113.96 points, or 1.05 percent, to end at 10,782.95. The Standard&Poor's 500 Index fell 14.23 points, or 1.21 percent, to 1157.44. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 30.66 points, or 1.26 percent, to close at 2394.36.

The S&P 500 gained 5.47 percent in the first three days of the week -- its biggest three-day run since July 2009.

Britain's top stock index hit a two-week closing high as miners gained tracking stronger metals prices, but persistent concerns about euro zone debt problems prompted investors to stay cautious. The FTSE 100 ended up 50.28 points, or 0.9 percent, at 5433.73 -- the highest close since April 30. The blue chip index has gained around 6 percent so far this week, recovering most of last week's 7.7 percent fall.

Japan's Nikkei average rose over 2 percent to a one-week closing high after Spain outlined measures to cut its deficit, easing fears the Greek debt crisis could spread in Europe and boosting exporters such as Advantest.

The Nikkei was up 2.2 percent or 226.52 points to 10,620.55, its highest close since last Thursday.

Australian shares jumped 1.8 percent, as Spain's plan to cut spending soothed investor fears about Europe's debt woes and soaring Australian employment boosted confidence in the economic recovery. The S&P ASX 200 index advanced by 79.8 points to close at 4652.8.

NZPA
Fri, 14 May 2010
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Sharemarket eases in early trading
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