KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket had a small lift in early trading, as leading stock Telecom gained.
Telecom added 3c to 229 having lost 8c on Friday, while among other leaders Fletcher Building was up 7c to 590 after losing 32c on Friday, but Contact Energy was down 5c to 700.
Around 10.15am the benchmark NZSX-50 index was up 11.9 points to 2667.21, having lost 52.3 points on Friday.
Other stocks to gain early were NZ Refining Co, which was up 10c to 595. The Warehouse was up 5c to 359, with Steel & Tube up 4c to 295 - both on low volume.
Sky City gained 3c to 289, while Auckland Airport was up 2c to 167 and Ryman Healthcare up 2c to 145.
Dual-listed Westpac gained 60c to 2010, with AMP up 30c to 640.
In the United States, the market ended last week with little change on the day, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq rising on Friday after the US government said it would throw a US$17.4 billion ($30.6 billion) lifeline to automakers grappling with falling consumer demand.
But the Dow Jones industrial average ended lower, pulled down by another fall in energy shares, including Chevron and Exxon Mobil, as oil sank for the sixth day in a row on fears the anaemic economy will swamp demand.
The Dow slipped 0.3 per cent, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 0.3 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.8 per cent.
For the week, the Dow fell 0.7 per cent, while the S&P 500 rose 0.8 per cent and the Nasdaq gained 1.5 per cent.
- NZPA