NZ sharemarket edges lower in early trading

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The New Zealand sharemarket edged lower in early trading after Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard left the official cash rate at 3 per cent, as widely expected.

The New Zealand dollar received a modest boost from Dr Bollard's comments, rising from around US76.45c at 9am, when the rateannouncement was made, to be around US77.10c at 10am.

Shares in one of the sharemarket's key stocks, Fletcher Building, were put on a trading halt about 15 minutes before the market opened, pending a material announcement by the company.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was down about 2.83 points to 3351.89, having dropped 4.3 points yesterday.

Shares in retailer Hallenstein Glasson rose 4c to 390 following a 24c drop yesterday, after the company said it expected half-year net profit to be between 13 and 18 per cent lower than a year earlier.

NZ Refining Co shares gained 6c to 460, Cavalier Corp was up 4c to 324, Restaurant Brands gained 2c to 245, Contact Energy added 2c to 624, and Mainfreight was up 6c to 820.

Among stocks falling early, Sky TV lost 5c to 525, Infratil was down 2c to 187, Trustpower lost 2c to 720, while Telecom was unchanged on 231.

In the United States, the blue chip Dow Jones industrial average slipped to finish with a modest gain after rising above 12,000 - where it spent most of the day - for the first time in 2-1/2 years.

Weak profit forecasts from Boeing kept the Dow from posting bigger gains.

At the market close, preliminary figures showed the Dow up 0.1 percent to 11,985, the Standard & Poor's 500 index was up 0.4 per cent to 1297, and the Nasdaq composite was up 0.7 per cent to 2740.

- NZPA