KEY POINTS:
New Zealand sharemarket made modest gains in early trading today, with top stock Telecom up 3c shortly after the market opened.
Around 10.15am the benchmark NZSX-50 index was up 14.12 points to 3268.28, having lost 1 per cent on Friday after strong gains on the two preceding days.
Telecom's 0.9 per cent early rise today took its price to 352, and came on top of a 2c gain on Friday.
Sky City continued its strong performance of last week, adding 7c, or 2.1 per cent, early to 334, after having been as low as 290 a week ago.
No 2 stock Contact Energy was up 4c early to 816 after losing 35c on Friday, while No 3 stock Fletcher Building clawed back 1c to 670 after a 22c loss the previous trading day.
Other stocks to rise early included Fisher & Paykel Appliances, up 7c early to 214, F&P Healthcare up 2c to 259, Guinness Peat Group up 2c to 138, and Tourism Holdings up 12c to 148 on low volume.
Also up 2c early was Rakon, to 275, and NZ Farming Systems Uruguay, to 184.
Stocks to lose early included Pike River Coal, down 3c to 200 and Infratil down 2c to 222.
US stocks rose 0.2 per cent on Friday (local time), boosted by better-than-expected reports on orders for durable manufactured goods and new home sales that eased fears about a sinking economy.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.19 per cent to 11,370.69 and the Standard & Poor's 500 broad-market index added 5.22 points to 1257.76. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite gained 1.33 per cent to 2310.43.
- NZPA