KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket gave up early gains to close lower on a day in which other markets in the Asian time zone did better.
The benchmark NZSX-50 closed down 6.911 points, or 0.255 per cent, at 2699.81. Volume was again light with shares worth $50.2 million trading. There were 43 rises and 34 falls.
The market was in positive territory for most of the session after the Dow Jones Industrial average jumped when initial investor shock at a bad Labour Department report dissipated. Paradoxically investors argued the ugly data might prompt more government help.
In New Zealand, news that the seasonally adjusted volume of residential building work put in place in the September quarter was the lowest since June 2002, helped knock Fletcher Building down 24c to 538.
"That move on Fletcher Building has probably pulled the whole market back," said Grant Williamson, director at Hamilton, Hindin, Greene said.
The local corporate news diary is quiet ahead of Christmas and news of the global financial crisis has been dominating investor sentiment for some time anyway.
"The market underperformed when you consider what Wall Street did on Friday and what Australia did today," Mr Williamson said.
Telecom was unchanged at 232 after earlier posting gains.
Tourism Holdings was down 3c at 62 and Infratil was down 6c at 165. Guinness Peat Group was down 2c at 100.
Others to drop included Auckland Airport down 3c at 166, NZOG 2c at 122 and Contact Energy 14c at 671.
Among the risers Rakon was up 10c at 140, Ryman 5c at 155, SkyTV 12c at 382 and Sanford 16c at 550.
Fisher & Paykel Appliances was up 4c at 139 and Port of Tauranga was up 10c at 610.
ANZ gained 45c at 1825 and Westpac was up 95c at 2160.
In the US, the Dow Jones industrial average jumped 3.1 per cent on Friday (local time) to 8635.42 after falling by 258 points and rising as much as 310 in the volatile trading late in the session.
Broader stock indicators also advanced. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 3.7 per cent to 876.07 and the Nasdaq composite index rose 4.4 per cent to 1509.31.
The Dow traded in a 568-point range as investors' shock dissipated over data showing employers slashed 533,000 jobs in November compared with the 320,00 that economists forecast. Ultimately, even a terrible reading on employment wasn't surprising to a market that has been drubbed by a stream of bad economic news.
- NZPA
