NZ Shares: Local market slips early

The New Zealand sharemarket slipped further in early trading, after equities in the United States continued to fall back.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was down 7.15 points to 2779, having fallen 39 points yesterday.

Top stock Telecom was up 1c early to $2.58, after losing 5c yesterday, while Fletcher Building dropped 10c to $6.50 after losing 18c yesterday. Contact Energy slipped 2c to $5.70 on top of yesterday's 11c loss.

Air NZ slipped 1c to $1.00, after reporting a 9.9 per cent fall in passenger numbers last month from a year earlier, although capacity cuts meant the group's load factor rose by 2.2 percentage points.

Other early falls included NZ Refining Co down 5c to $7.30, NZX down 4c to $7.70, NZ Oil & Gas down 3c to $1.59, and Sky TV down 3c to $4.25. Dual-listed Westpac fell 50c to $24.30.

Early risers included Ebos Group, up 5c to $5.30, and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare up 2c to $2.94.

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In the US, stocks fell as mixed economic data and disappointing sales by Best Buy Co, the largest US consumer electronics retailer, spurred worries about an anaemic recovery.

After a three-month run that lifted the S&P 500 as much as 40 per cent from 12-year lows, analysts said the economy needed to start showing real improvement to support optimism about a budding recovery.

A rebound in May housing starts pointed to some stabilisation in that sector, but another government report showed industrial production had a steeper-than-expected slide last month.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 1.3 per cent to 8504.67, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 1.3 per cent to 911.97, and the Nasdaq Composite Index was off 1.1 per cent to 1796.18.

- NZPA