KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket started the day lower as several leading shares took early knocks.
Telecom was down 2c early to $2.67, Fletcher Building shed 7c to $5.51, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare gave up 3c to $3.42, and Auckland Airport lost 2c to $1.79.
Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was down 9.68 points to 2761.82, after easing 2.65 points yesterday, a much smaller drop than recorded on markets around the world.
Specialty resins and chemicals manufacturer and marketer Nuplex was down a further 2c early to $2.65, on top of a 21c fall yesterday after providing a market update.
Nuplex said its operations continued to be affected by volatile trading conditions, with ebitda for the first half of the 2009 financial year expected to be a little below guidance provided in November.
Early gains today were shown by retailer Hallenstein Glasson, up 4c to $2.25, and NZ Refining Co which gained 9c to $6.60, but both were on small volumes.
* * *
In the United States, technology stocks rallied on bets the Obama administration's economic stimulus will boost spending on telecommunications and tech infrastructure.
Despite that, the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poors 500 Index fell as uncertainty about a plan to stem bank losses dragged Bank of America down almost 9 per cent.
The Dow Jones industrial average ended provisionally down 0.8 per cent, with the S&P 500 down 0.1 per cent, while the tech-laden Nasdaq Composite Index rose 1.2 per cent.
- NZPA
