NZ sharemarket flat early

The New Zealand sharemarket was flat in early trading, following caution on Wall Street ahead of earnings reports from companies in the United States.

After wobbling either side of yesterday's close in the first 15 minutes of trading today, the benchmark NZX-50 index was up 0.06 of a point to 3012.09. Yesterday the index chalked up its seventh consecutive day of gains with a lift of 6.8 points but that was on very low volume.

Port of Tauranga rose 9c early to $6.95, NZ Refining Co gained 6c to $3.21, and Hellaby Holdings lifted 2c to $1.77, while dual-listed AMP fell 19c to $6.40.

Among leading shares Telecom was unchanged on $1.95, after rising 3c yesterday on a day in which there was continuing speculation in Australia about the sale of its AAPT unit. Fletcher Building was untraded early having closed yesterday at $7.71 and Contact Energy was unchanged on $5.82.

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In the US, caution prevailed, with indexes edging higher as investors kept bets to a minimum in front of the earnings reports.

Volume was among the lightest of the year with investors wanting to see if corporate outlooks validate last week's surge, the strongest week in a year. Dow component Alcoa reported better than expected second-quarter results after the closing bell.

The Dow Jones industrial average added 0.2 per cent to end at 10,216.27, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index edged up 0.1 per cent to 1078.75, and the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.1 per cent to close at 2198.36.

- NZPA