Small early rise for NZ shares
The New Zealand sharemarket started the day with a small rise, following a solid end to last week in the United States where the Standard&Poor's 500 index chalked up a seventh straight week of gains.
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The New Zealand sharemarket started the day with a small rise, following a solid end to last week in the United States where the Standard&Poor's 500 index chalked up a seventh straight week of gains.
About 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was up 0.64 points to 3370.53, but a few minutes earlier it had been at a 28-month high above 3377 points. On Friday the index had slipped 3.8 points.
Freightways was up 3c to be at an eight-month high of 328, Sky City gained 4c to 332 early, and The Warehouse lifted 3c to 359. Telecom slipped 1c to 227, Fletcher Building edged up 1c to 795, and Contact Energy was down 1c to 637.
Ebos Group lost 3c to 735, Nuplex was down 3c to 350, and Hallenstein Glasson dropped 2c to 410.
Xero gained 13c early to 268, having fallen during the first two weeks of January after hitting a record 316 at the end of 2010.
In the United States, stocks gained on Friday with a banks-led rally amid healthy volume after encouraging financial results from JPMorgan.
Strength in financial stocks helped offset economic reports that showed soft December retail sales and consumer sentiment dented by rising gasoline prices. The market's resilience will be tested this week when a number of banks report results.
The Dow Jones industrial average added 0.5 percent to 11,787.38, the S&P rose 0.7 percent to 1293.24, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.7 percent to 2755.30.
For the week, the Dow ended up 1 percent, the S&P 500 was 1.7 percent higher and the Nasdaq composite was up 1.9 percent. United States financial markets are closed on Monday for Martin Luther King Jr Day.
NZPA
Mon, 17 Jan 2011
Mon, 17 Jan 2011
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Small early rise for NZ shares
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