Market quiet with little data to digest

Photo / Kenny Rodger

The New Zealand sharemarket opened relatively quietly this morning as trade overseas thinned since the US Labour Day holiday gave overseas markets no data to digest.

The benchmark NZX-50 index opened up 3.362 points, or 0.107 per cent to 3146.504, after closing up 35.713 points yesterday.

Fletcher Building, Steel & Tube and Cavalier Carpets soared yesterday, while Tower shares plunged as investors assessed the implications of Saturday's destructive Christchurch earthquake.

This morning, after gaining 39c yesterday, Fletcher Building was down 4c to $8.10, while Steel & Tube and Cavalier continued to show gains, up 1c to $2.38 and 1c to $2.65 respectively.

Tower was unmoved, sitting at $1.85.

Telecom continued a strong run opening up 1c to $2.10, New Zealand Oil and Gas was up 4c to $1.28, and Air New Zealand was up 2c to $1.32.

KiwiTrust rose 1c to 98, Rakon rose 1c to $1.21, and Sky City rose 1c to $2.96.

Goodman Property rose 1c to 96 after yesterday reporting its portfolio was largely unaffected by the earthquake, and The Warehouse was up 1c to $3.66.

Contact Energy was down 1c to $5.64, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was down 1c to $3.03, Ryman was down 1c to $2.05, and Nuplex was down 2c to $3.28.

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The US was on Labour Day holiday overnight, after Wall Street ended last week strongly.

- NZPA