KEY POINTS:
The sharemarket resumed in early business today where it left off before the Easter holiday -- edging down mildly on light turnover.
The NZSX-50 index was down 6.56 points to 4178.14 at 10.10am.
Sentiment was not helped by a deterioration in business confidence, according to the latest Quarterly Survey of Business Opinion (QSBO) published today by the NZIER.
The QSBO puts the balance of firms surveyed in the March quarter expecting a deterioration in the general business situation in the next six months at 15 per cent.
Top stock Telecom was down 1c at 479. A wire agency report suggested the payout from the $2.24 billion sale of its Yellow Pages unit last month may be as little as $500m as it paid to invest in its Australian network.
Rival Telstra was down 7c to 523.
Sky TV fell 6c to 570 while Freightways fell 4c to 435 and Contact Energy eased 3c to 925 from near a record high.
An 8c fall to 1195 by Australian fund manager AMP was the only other move of more than a couple of cents in the top 50.
Air NZ was down 2c to 235.
On Wall Street, US stocks closed flat as news that billionaire investor Warren Buffett had bought stakes in the railroad sector and strong jobs data offset worries about earnings and subprime loans.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 8.94 points to end at 12,569.14.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 0.85 of a point to finish at 1444.61 but the Nasdaq Composite Index dipped 2.16 points to close at 2469.18.
- NZPA