KEY POINTS:
The sharemarket fell in early trading today as more stocks issued profit warnings due to the high dollar and amid concerns the Reserve Bank could hike interest rates again.
The NZSX-50 benchmark index was down 6.83 points to 4289.59 at 10.20am. Turnover was worth $34.3 million.
Most economists expected the Reserve Bank to hold rates at Thursday review, but several from mainstream banks expected a hike.
Nuplex fell 19c to 711 after it said it was closing a Brazilian factory that would cut $3m of annual losses, but it would cost $3.5m to do so.
It also said its European business had suffered a bad debt of $2m and the delayed closure of an Australian business would also affect performance.
Ebitda for the current year was expected to be at the bottom, or marginally below, the $103m-$110m previously forecast.
Skellerup slumped 8c to 115 after it said it would report a $7m loss due to $16m of one-off costs. Its pre abnormals profit would be $9m against $13.4m a year earlier, due to a recent slowdown in trading and the effects of the higher dollar.
There was little change in the market leaders with Contact Energy and Fletcher Building unchanged and Telecom down 2c to 478.
Fisher & Paykel Appliances was down 7c to 388 while Tower was up 6c to 244.
The Warehouse was down 5c to 625 after speculation on Friday that the Commerce Commission looked set to decline takeover applications from Woolworths and Foodstuffs.
Air New Zealand eased back 5c to 305 after soaring 13c to a five-year high on Friday.
Turners Auctions was up 6c to 112 and Software of Excellence up 7c to 276.
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In the US, stocks rose with the Dow and the S&P 500 eking out closing records, as higher energy shares and a fresh round of takeovers offset concerns about a sharp sell-off in Chinese stocks.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 2.84 points to 1539.18, finishing at a record for the fourth straight session.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 8.21 points to end at a record 13,676.32 and the Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 4.37 points to close at 2618.29.
- NZPA