KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket today was slightly down early, led by an easing of top stock Telecom.
About five minutes after the stock exchange's 10am opening the benchmark NZXS-50 index was off 3.02 points to 4252.62
After a 4c rise yesterday, Telecom was down 2c early today at 476.
Other stocks to drop early included Sky City off 4c to 480, Auckland International Airport 1c to 328, Air New Zealand 1c to 268, and Contact Energy 2c to 920 on top of a 2c fall yesterday.
Also sliding early today were Steel & Tube down 2c to 480, Tower 1c to 241 and The Warehouse 3c to 600.
On the upside Fisher & Paykel Appliances lifted 2c to 365, having risen 8c yesterday, Infratil was up 5c to 315, and Ryman Healthcare 1c to 213.
Exporting companies are having to cope with a dollar in uncharted territory at its highest level since the currency was floated 22 years ago near US80c.
There are fears the Reserve Bank will next week lift interest rates yet again, making the NZ currency ever more attractive, even as a political storm howls around Finance Minister Michael Cullen.
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Investors are today also buying in the shadow of a glum session on Wall Street, with US stocks falling on deepening concerns that a crisis in lending could spread and a warning from the Federal Reserve chairman that weakness in housing could hurt economic growth for some time.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 0.38 per cent to end at 13,918.22, a day after it hit an intraday high above the 14,000 milestone.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 0.21 per cent to finish at 1546.17. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 0.47 per cent to close at 2699.49.
- NZPA