NZ sharemarket flat in early trade

File Photo / Paul Estcourt

The New Zealand sharemarket was flat in early trading, after weakness in the United States jobs market sapped the global appetite for risk.

Gold recorded its biggest one-day gain in more than two months, while the US dollar extended its previous day's strong gains on both the weak US jobs data and softer-than-expected euro zone figures.

In this country Fletcher Building shares gained 3c early to $7.50, after falling 10c yesterday, while Mainfreight gained 5c to $6.55 but on small volume.

Telecom gained 1c to $2.02 and Contact Energy slipped 1c to $5.69. Nuplex shares fell 2c to $2.92.

Rural services company PGG Wrightson was down 1c to 55c early, after reporting a full year net profit of $23.3 million, while revenue fell 10.1 per cent to $1.15 billion.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was up 1.45 points to 3008.35, after yesterday ending down 29.1 points.

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In the US, stocks ended down for a third straight day as the rise in jobless claims and a sobering revenue outlook from Cisco underscored the hurdles to economic recovery.

The latest drop comes a day after all three major indexes posted their worst percentage declines in more than a month, erasing gains for the year in the aftermath of a gloomier outlook from the US Federal Reserve.

The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 0.6 per cent to 10,319.95, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 0.5 per cent to 1083.61, and the Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 0.8 per cent to 2190.27.

- NZPA