Building Society Holdings shares start trading

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Shares in new listing Building Society Holdings opened at 95c on the New Zealand sharemarket but quickly fell away to 88c.

Building Society Holdings was established through the combining of Pyne Gould Corp's Marac Finance, CBS Canterbury and Southern Cross Building Society.

The combined operation is one of the largest finance companies now operating in this country, and it also has plans to obtain a banking licence.

Fletcher Building edged up 1c early to 774, having lost 16c yesterday after announcing an increased bid for Australian plumbing supplies firm Crane Group, which the Crane board approved.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was down 2.96 points to 3335.78, following on from yesterday's 13.9-point fall.

Sanford shares fell 6c early to 494, Cavalier Corp dropped 4c to 315, Sky City was down 3c to 325, Trustpower fell 3c to 721, Air New Zealand was down 2c to 138, and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare lost 2c to 316.

Two of the largest stocks edged up, with Telecom adding 1c to 229, and Contact Energy up 2c to 617.

In the United States, stocks rose on healthy earnings and signs of a strengthening economy, even as a surge in the price of oil highlighted the potential for increased political risk in the Middle East to upset markets.

According to preliminary data the Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.6 percent to 11,891.86, the Standard & Poor's 500 rose 0.8 per cent to 1286.10, and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.5 per cent to 2700.08.

For the month, the Dow rose 2.7 percent, the S&P 500 added 2.3 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.8 per cent. It was the fourth month of gains in the last five for the three indexes.

After a weekend of digesting the political turmoil in Egypt, investors took a more sanguine view of events after sending stocks sharply lower on Friday.

Relief that the turmoil appeared not to be escalating as feared allowed investors to focus on data showing stronger US personal spending and regional manufacturing as well as solid earnings from Exxon Mobil Corp.

- NZPA