KEY POINTS:
The sharemarket opened the new week to news that the managing director of one of its largest companies was standing down immediately.
SkyCity shares rose 16c to 517 after the company said Evan Davies was standing down and director Elmar Toime would step into the role of executive director until a replacement was found.
The benchmark NZSX-50 was down 2.7 points at 4282.43 after closing down 15.42 points on Friday.
Telecom was down 1c at 458 as backgrounders on chief executive Theresa Gattung's career ahead of her departure this month started appearing in the media.
The New Zealand dollar continued to trade at high levels and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand had no comment on reports that it intervened in New York on Friday.
The high currency is bad for exporters, and as witness to that Fisher and Paykel Appliances shares were down 12c at 366 in early trading. The healthcare stock was down 1c at 344.
Fletcher Building was unchanged at 1270 and Mainfreight was unchanged at 750.
SkyTV was up 4c at 580 and Macquarie Goodman was down 1c at 151.
The Warehouse was down 1c at 600 and Tower was up 4c at 257.
US stocks declined on Friday as the heavily weighted financial sector slumped on worries that two hedge funds' losses on risky mortgage securities might not be contained.
The strains on financials overshadowed the debut of shares in Blackstone Group LP, the largest private equity fund to go public.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 79.09 points, or 0.58 per cent, at 13,466.75. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 8.90 points, or 0.58 per cent, at 1513.29.
The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 14.32 points, or 0.55 per cent, at 2602.64.
Blackstone's shares rose 15.2 per cent in its market debut.
Blackstone, the largest private equity firm to go public, raised US$4.13 billion ($5.47b) in an initial public offering on Thursday.
- NZPA