KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket opened softer today but Contact Energy and Fletcher Building did manage small gains after several days of losses.
Around 10.20am the benchmark NZSX-50 index was down 2.4 points to 3909.77, holding above year lows under 3884 points hit during yesterday's trading.
When the market opened today falls outnumbered rises by 27 to eight among 61 stocks traded, on turnover of 3.2 million shares at a value of $12.2 million.
Contact Energy gained 4c early to 820, having fallen from 842 a week ago, including a 13c drop yesterday.
Fletcher Building, which has fallen since reaching 1151 a week ago including losing 24c yesterday, added 7c early today to 1090.
The fall in Fletcher's share price is thought to be a result of global growth sentiment, rather than anything to do with the company which has plenty of work lined up.
Top stock Telecom also managed to rise early gaining 2c to 429, while Sky City was up 1c to 427 and Infratil gained 1c to 281.
Among stocks to fall early were Nuplex which was down 10c to 680, with Mainfreight off 6c at 625, Tower down 2c to 220, Sky TV down 2c to 570, ING Property Trust down 2c to 106, and Freightways down 2c to 360.
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In the US, stocks ended a volatile session with rises as talk of recession pushed investors into health care and other defensive sectors seen as resistant to a slowdown.
After stocks kicked the year off with their worst five-day start ever, investors scoured the market for bargains among big technology names such as Apple Inc and Microsoft Corp.
Stocks like drugmaker Merck & Co and Coca-Cola Co also led indexes higher .
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 1.16 per cent, at 12,735.31. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 1.36 per cent, at 1409.13. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 1.39 per cent, at 2474.55.
- NZPA