KEY POINTS:
The sharemarket was flat in early trading today despite a strong performance of Wall Street stocks overnight.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index was up 1.6 points to 3599 at 10.15am.
Market leader Telecom regained the 2c it lost yesterday to be on 412. No.2 Fletcher Building gained 2c to add to yesterday's 16c surge to be on 963 while Contact Energy lost yesterday's 2c gain to be back on 755.
Children's clothing retailer Pumpkin Patch recovered 3c to 186 after being hammered 11c to its lowest level since August 2004 yesterday, on the back of a disappointing January half result.
The company boosted its revenue but its net after-tax profit fell 23 per cent to $10.2 million, largely due to expansion-related costs and the high dollar.
Another exporter hit hard by the high dollar, Rakon, was up 5c to 294.
Clothing retailer, Hallenstein Glasson, rose 4c to 400.
Australian finance sector stocks were down with Westpac off 35 to 2620, ANZ 30c to 2552 and AMP 15c to 885.
Auckland Airport was up 1c on 276 after reporting a 3.9 per cent fall in first half net profit thanks to a $5.8m of costs related to various takeover proposals. The company, which said it was not yet ready to comment on speculation it will revise its advice against Canadian Pension Plan's partial bid, said it would incur similar costs in the second half.
PGG Wrightson lost another 5c to 199 and is now down a cent after initially rising 10c on its first half result published this week.
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In the US, stocks ended higher, helped by an advance in technology shares following unexpectedly strong profits from computer and printer maker Hewlett-Packard Co.
Expectations that the Federal Reserve will keep cutting interest rates also buoyed sentiment. Both the Dow and the Nasdaq snapped a three-day losing streak.
Energy shares also climbed as US oil futures set an intraday record slightly above US$101 ($128) a barrel.
The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 90.04 points, or 0.73 per cent, to end unofficially at 12,427.26. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index climbed 11.25 points, or 0.83 per cent, to finish unofficially at 1360.03 and the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 20.90 points, or 0.91 per cent, to close unofficially at 2327.10.
- NZPA
