NZ stocks: Market creeps upwards in early trade

The New Zealand sharemarket crept upwards in early trading today after tumbling yesterday on the back of Australian shivers.

By around 10.30am the benchmark NZSX-50 gross index was up 5.69 points to 3354.15, while the NZSX all capital index was up 1.4 points to 998.54.

Yesterday the NZSX-50 dropped 24.00 points and the NZSX dropped 8.07 points.

Early today Telecom was clawing back some of the 10c it lost yesterday, putting on 3c to 564.

Sky TV, cleared by the Commerce Commission after the market closed yesterday to buy Prime's New Zealand's operations, picked up 2c to 640.

Fletcher Building was up 5c to 750, while Contact Energy dropped 3c to 677.

Shares in Fisher & Paykel Appliances were unchanged at 352 after the company today said it expected an annual profit of between $60-63 million.

Today's forecast was 4.6 per cent down on the previous guidance given of between $63-66m.

- NZPA