New Zealand stocks flat early

Photo / Kenny Rodger

The New Zealand sharemarket was flat in early trading, as Fletcher Building gave up some of the 19c it gained yesterday.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was up 0.85 points to 3236.46, after a gain yesterday of 30.8 points, or nearly 1 per cent, as world markets rallied, to the index's highest closing level in more than five months.

Fletcher Building fell 7c early to $8.31, Rakon lost 2c to $1.25, Tenon fell 5c to $1.00, while Hallenstein Glasson gained 2c to $4.41.

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In the United States, banks led stocks lower as investors fretted a widening foreclosure crisis could undermine the market's strength of the past five weeks.

The Dow Jones industrial average dipped 0.01 per cent to 11,094.57, the Standard & Poor's 500 dropped 0.4 per cent to 1173.81, and the Nasdaq Composite shed 0.2 per cent to 2435.38.

All 50 US states are investigating the mortgage industry, and investors are growing concerned it will hurt bank earnings.

But some say the foreclosure issues, which have been brewing for weeks, were being used as an excuse for investors to pull back from the solid gains since the beginning of September.

- NZPA