NZ shares up a notch in early trading

file photo / Paul Estcourt

The New Zealand opened slightly higher today, with Pike River shareholder NZOG up a cent as the Royal Commission opened hearings into the West Coast coal mine explosion last November that killed 29 men.

The benchmark NZX-50 index was up to 3462.853 about 10.15am, after closing at 3459.509 last night.

Fletcher Building, which drove the market last week, was up 3 cents from yesterday's closing to $9.36, while Telecom was down 1 cent to $2.05.5, Abano Healthcare was 2c down to $4.53.

Kathmandu rose 3c to $2.35, The Warehouse rose 2c to $3.57 and Hallenstein Glasson rose 4c to $3.85, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was steady on $3.17 and NZX rose 2c to $2.18.

NZOG rose a cent to 96c as the royal commission preliminary hearing opened in Greymouth today. NZOG has a 29 per cent shareholding in Pike River.

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In the United States S&P 500 met tough resistance as the trading week opened, failing to break a level that has held since mid-February and ending flat even as a spate of deals and underlying strength in the economy spurred optimism.

But caution ahead of earnings season held volume to its lowest level this year and suggested the recent rally may be fading.

The benchmark S&P 500 hovered slightly below 1333, which it has not closed above since mid-February. The level is double the 12-year low hit in March 2009 and not far from 1344, the S&P's highest since June 2008.

"Volume has dried up here as investors and traders are sitting on their positions to see what happens" in the upcoming earnings season, said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Asset Management in Bedford, New York.

Larry McMillan, president of McMillan Analysis Corp, said the market was due for a short-term correction as technical indicators suggested the market is overbought.

"Overall, the picture is still bullish, but the market is acting tired because it's overbought. With the month-end bullish influences winding down, there could be a short-lived pullback at hand," he said in a note.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 23.31 points, or 0.19 per cent, to end at 12,400.03. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up just 0.46 of a point, or 0.03 per cent, at 1332.87. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 0.41 of a point, or 0.01 per cent, at 2789.19.

- NZPA