KEY POINTS:
The sharemarket pulled up in early trading today from near lows not seen for over two years.
The NZSX-50 benchmark index inched up 4 points to 3443 at 10.20am, having lost 1.4 per cent yesterday amid very low investor confidence.
Third-ranked Fletcher Building, which yesterday slumped below $7 for the first time in two years, was up 10c to 710 today.
No 2 stock Contact Energy recovered 9c of yesterday's 10c loss to be on 865.
But top stock Telecom fell another 2c to 271 to add to yesterday's 7c loss.
TrustPower was down 9c to 835 while local insurer Tower was up 4c to 220.
Carpet maker Cavalier was down 5c to 265 as the woes in the building industry filtered through.
Dominion Finance was down 3c to 60c while Sealegs was down 3c to 43.
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Sentiment improved on Wall Street. US stocks rose after a stronger-than-expected May retail sales report and a US$46 billion ($62 billion) takeover bid for Anheuser-Busch from InBev helped the market recover from a string of deep losses.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 58.95 points (0.49 per cent) to 12,142.72 and the Nasdaq composite increased 10.34 points (0.43 per cent) to 2404.35 at the closing bell.
The Standard & Poor's 500 broad-market index was up 4.44 points (0.33 per cent) at a preliminary close of 1339.93.
- NZPA