Sharemarket starts week poorly losing 30 points

File photo / NZ Herald

The New Zealand sharemarket started the week on the back foot with declines in key shares, including Telecom and Fletcher Building.

The benchmark NZX-50 index fell a whopping 30.81 points to 3381.93, after reaching a high on Friday when it closed up 17 points.

Fletcher Building lost 9c to $8.30, Contact Energy eased 6c to $6.19, and Telecom fell 5c to $2.20.

PGG Wrightson shares dropped 3c, or just over 5 per cent, to $5.40 after a second possible bidder ruled itself out of the running for the company.

PGG Wrightson said a party that had been interested in the company had decided it would not be making a formal takeover offer. A partial takeover offer by shareholder Agria Corp continues.

Cavalier Corp lifted 5c to $3.28 after reporting a half-year lift in sales and profit, fishing company Sanford added 12c to $5.05 and Sky City gained 1c to $3.30.

Meanwhile, Sky TV fell 13c to $5.45, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare fell 5c to $3.04, Trustpower dropped 2c to $7.20, while Abano Healthcare gained 1c to $4.66, and Xero added 2c to $2.65.

Nuplex fell 3c to $3.72, ahead of the release of its half-year results on Thursday.

The Warehouse eased 4c to $3.51 and OceanaGold dropped 14c to $3.71.

In the United States, late arrivals to the speediest rally in stocks since the Great Depression pushed stocks higher for a third week on Friday (local time), despite growing signals of an overheating market.

Analysts said investors appeared reluctant to sell, despite slack volume and a narrowing spread between winners and losers.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.6 per cent to 12,391.25, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 0.2 per cent to 1343.01, and the Nasdaq Composite Index edged up 0.1 per cent to 2833.95.

- NZPA