NZ sharemarket slips early

File photo / Kenny Rodger

The New Zealand sharemarket eased in early trading, after making solid gains yesterday despite mediocre data on retailing and the property market.

Among companies that went ex-dividend today, Port of Tauranga was down 12c early to $6.75, and NZ Oil & Gas fell 5c to $1.27.

After gaining 12c yesterday to its highest closing level since late April, Fletcher Building dropped 4c early to $8.44, while Hallenstein Glasson fell 3c to $3.92, Mainfreight was down 3c to $7.21, and Nuplex eased 2c to $3.41.

Cavalier Corp lifted 10c to $2.95, Sky TV was up 3c to $5.23, Tourism Holdings was up 2c to 80 and Methven gained 2c to $1.72.

Around 10.20am the benchmark NZX-50 index was down 2.44 points to 3195.08, having yesterday gained 19.1 points.

Tower shares were unchanged on $1.85, after the company advised it had entered into an agreement that resolved all disputes between Tower Insurance and ANZ National Bank. The agreement would enable Tower to continue to renew insurance policies sold through ANZ National.

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In the United States, stocks were little changed after promising data from the retail sector fed recent optimism that the economic recovery, while slow, is proceeding.

While retail stocks were a bright spot, gains were capped as financial shares gave back some of the recent advances that had led up to the Basel III rules, announced over the weekend, which set new capital regulations for banks.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 0.2 per cent to 10,526.49, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index shed 0.1 per cent to 1121.10, and the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.2 per cent to 2289.77.

- NZPA