NZ Shares: Market opens lower after Contact profit guidance

The New Zealand sharemarket slipped in early trading as Contact Energy shares fell 2.6 per cent after the company issued profit guidance.

Contact's shares were down 15c to $5.65 in the first few minutes after the market opened.

Earlier the company said it expected full year underlying earnings after tax to be 30 to 33 per cent less than in the year to June 2008, due to lower than expected wholesale electricity prices.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was down 8.7 points to 2825.81, having risen 18.8 points on Friday.

Infratil shares rose 5c to $1.75 early, after the company said it had granted Australian private equity fund Archer Capital a call option over part of Infratil's shareholding in Brisbane-based Energy Developments.

The call option totals 19.99 per cent of the shares of Energy Developments, in which Infratil has a 32.1 per cent shareholding.

Leading stock Telecom eased 1c to $2.60 early, while Fletcher Building was down 5c to $6.90.

Sanford shares were up 6c to $5.70 on low volume, Property for Industry gained 2c to $1.17, Pike River Coal added 2c to $1.22, Rakon was up 2c to 41.58, and Sky City lifted 2c to $2.78.

Shares falling early included NZX, down 5c to $7.63, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare down 3c to $3.12, The Warehouse down 2c to $3.75, and NZ Oil & Gas down 2c to $1.60.

***

US stocks flip-flopped throughout Friday's session, with the major indexes ending split as investors paused to consider conflicting signals in monthly US jobs data.

The Labor Department reported that employers cut 345,000 jobs in May -- substantially less than analysts had forecast -- but the US unemployment rate hit 9.4 per cent, its highest since 1983.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.2 per cent to 8763.13, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index declined 0.3 per cent to 940.09, and the Nasdaq Composite Index dipped slightly to 1849.42.

- NZPA