KEY POINTS:
The sharemarket started the week with a step downward after taking a breather from a breath-taking run on Friday.
The NZSX-50 index was down 7.771 points at 4297.48 in early trading after closing down 0.6 per cent on Friday.
Market leader Telecom was down 9c at 482 after it went ex-dividend today.
Fletcher Building, a star performer in the wake of announcing a plan for a near $1 billion purchase of Formica last week, was down 5c at 1305.
The local market move came after US stocks rose on Friday on takeover news. The US market is closed on Monday for Memorial Day so there won't be any leads from that market tomorrow.
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 38.11 points, or 0.28 per cent, at 13,479.24 on Friday. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 5.17 points, or 0.34 per cent, at 1,512.68. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 15.22 points, or 0.60 per cent, at 2,553.14.
APN News and Media was untraded after the latest bid to take the company private failed despite unnamed sources saying it would be a close thing.
SkyCity was down 4c at 512 and Auckland Airport was down 3c at 266.
Contact was down 3c at 885. Nuplex was down 5c at 730.
The Warehouse was down 2c at 644 after another news last week of another postponement of the Commerce Commission's decision on allowing Woolworths and/or Foodstuffs to make a takeover.
- NZPA