NZ sharemarket gains early

After falling for three consecutive days, the New Zealand sharemarket recorded a small gain in early trading today.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was up 4.38 points to 2968.99, having fallen nearly 63 points in the past three trading days, including 21 points yesterday.

NZ Refining Co added 6c to $33.5 in early trading today, Mainfreight was up 5c to $6.25, Port of Tauranga gained 4c to $6.85, Trustpower lifted 3c to $7.18, and Sky TV gained 3c to $4.77 although on low volume.

Among leading stocks, Fletcher Building gained 1c to $7.54 after yesterday dropping to a five-month intraday low of $7.50. Telecom was unchanged on $1.88 and Contact Energy was unchanged on $5.68.

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In the United States, stocks rose, spurred by optimism ahead of earnings from key technology companies and after Boeing announced strong orders.

Investors bet there would be solid reports from IBM, the world's largest technology services provider, and chip maker Texas Instruments, hoping they would echo Intel's positive results last week. Intel's forecast-beating profits and revenues had shown strength in technology spending.

But shares of IBM fell nearly 4 per cent after the closing bell after its revenues missed expectations, and Texas Instruments slumped 6 per cent as its revenue failed to impress.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 0.6 per cent to 10,154.43, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 0.6 per cent to 1071.25, and the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.9 per cent to 2198.23.

- NZPA