NZ sharemarket rises early

The New Zealand sharemarket rose in early trading as leading stock Telecom gained 3c early from levels near historic lows.

The market started the week with a lift despite a slide in world equities at the end of last week after a downgrade of Spain's credit rating sent a new chill through markets already worried about the European debt crisis.

Telecom's early gain of 1.6 per cent took it to $1.89, while fishing company Sanford lifted 5c to $4.30, and The Warehouse was up 2c to $3.50.

Around 10.15am, the benchmark NZX-50 index was up 7.6 points to 3055.35, following on from a 12.9-point gain on Friday.

Shares in shower and tapware company Methven were down 2c to $1.56 after the company reported a 22.2 per cent fall in full year net profit to $7.8 million, and said it had weathered the fallout from the global economic crisis.

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In the United States, a fall in stocks on Friday capped their worst month in over a year.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 1.2 per cent to 10,136.63, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index

fell 1.2 per cent to 1089.41, and the Nasdaq Composite Index declined 0.9 per cent to 2257.04.

For the month, the Dow fell 7.9 per cent, the S&P shed 8.2 per cent and the Nasdaq lost 8.3 per cent. The declines were the worst for the Dow and S&P since February 2009 while the Nasdaq suffered its worst monthly drop since November 2008.

For the week, the Dow edged 0.6 per cent lower, the S&P 500 gained 0.2 per cent and the Nasdaq added 1.3 per cent.

- NZPA