KEY POINTS:
The sharemarket followed Wall Street's lead today and slid gently lower in early business.
United States stocks lost early gains and turned lower as crude oil prices crossed US$100 ($127) a barrel to hit a record level, creating more concern about consumers.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index, which rose an impressive 2.5 per cent on Monday and ended positively yesterday, was down 11.7 points to 3597.7 at 10.15am.
The top three stocks were the main market movers. Heavyweight Telecom was down 6c to 406, Fletcher Building 8c down to 937 and Contact Energy 5c to 750.
PGG Wrightson, which yesterday rose 10c after announcing a 68 per cent rise in first half net profit to $34.6 million, and an increased dividend, today was down 5c to 205.
Other than an 11c rise to 920 by AMP and ANZ'S 20c gain to 2645 there were no other moves of more than 2c in the top 50.
The Warehouse was up 2c to 600 and hard-hit Rakon was up 2c to 290, despite the kiwi dollar rising back over US80c today.
Among the smaller stocks, Restaurant Brands lost 4c to 81 and Renaissance rose 4c to 62.
In the US, the Dow Jones industrial average unofficially ended down 10.99 points, or 0.09 per cent, at 12,337.22.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index finished off 1.21 points at 1348.78 and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 15.60 points for an unofficial close at 2306.20.
- NZPA
