KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket recovered from early weakness to close up, mostly reflecting trading in top stock Telecom.
Telecom closed down 4c at 323 but recovered from a low of 311 on a day it went ex dividend.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index ended the session up 4.461 points at 3357.704 after being down 26.64 points in early trading. The gross index is dragged lower when companies go ex dividend.
"Fletcher Building was a negative," Stephen Wright at ASB Securities said. It closed down 28c at 702.
"On the other hand there's been a succession of companies that have had reasonable profit results and they are up," he said.
SkyCity was up 12c at 372, Cavalier was up 9c at 290 and Rakon was up 11c at 291. Port of Tauranga rose 8c to 710.
Pike River rose 6c to 195.
Contact Energy was unchanged at 836. Vector eased 5c to 227. TrustPower eased 1c to 790.
There were 56 rises and 40 falls today and turnover was worth $57.88 million.
Brokers said trading was relatively quiet in Asian markets today because the US equities market is closed on Monday for the Labor Day holiday.
US stocks tumbled on Friday, led lower by tech shares after computer maker Dell warned that companies worldwide are cutting back on technology spending.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 1.46 per cent at 11,543.71. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 1.38 per cent at 1282.75. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 1.83 per cent at 2367.52.
For the month, though, the Dow added 1.5 per cent, while the S&P rose 1.3 per cent and the Nasdaq gained 1.8 per cent.
- NZPA
