KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket was in consolidation mode today after robust trading on Friday.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index s tarted slightly negatively but edged into the black, closing up 1.74 points to 3658.94 after gaining 43 points on Friday.
Turnover was a low $67 million with 56 rises and 38 falls.
ABN Amro Craigs retail adviser Nigel Scott said the market was resting after strong gains on Friday, local currency moves and Australia's resource and oil story.
" Probably the market will stay quiet leading into (Thursday's) budget and movements have tended to be a little bit along the movements of the currency."
Fletcher Building helped lead the way upwards, rising 12c to 850 after bargain hunters drove it up 33c on Friday.
Telecom was flat at 394, and Contact Energy was 4c down at 885 after 12c gains on Friday.
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare experienced a second day of strong volumes, rising 2c to 277 as investors picked it to benefit from the weakening kiwi dollar. It posts its annual results on Wednesday.
Australian stocks benefited from a strong resources and oils market, with Nuplex up 12c to 640, Telstra up 14c to 594, and Westpac up 25c to 3100, although other dual-listed banks were largely unaffected.
After reporting a 5 per cent slide in quarterly sales last week, clothing chain owner Hallenstein Glasson touched a year low of 322 but picked up in late trade to 333, off 2c.
Also down were Auckland Airport, off 5c to 225, Sky City down 7c to 388, and Rakon fell 15c to 330 ahead of its annual result on Thursday.
Among the risers were Cavalier, up 7c to 265, NZOG up 4c to 162, and Tower up 9c to 225.
In the US on Friday (local time) stocks finished little changed as surging oil prices lifted energy shares and offset data that showed consumer confidence sank to its lowest in 28 years.
The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 0.05 per cent to end at 12,986.80. The S&P inched up 1.78 points to 1425.35. The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.19 per cent to 2528.85.
- NZPA
