KEY POINTS:
The sharemarket opened firmer this morning after getting mild reassurance from global markets that a major meltdown was not underway.
The NZSX-50 index was up 6.87 points to 4077.84 at 10.10am.
The market dropped over 1 per cent yesterday despite strong markets in Australia and signs of recovery in Asia.
The market was led up by heavyweight Telecom rising 4c to 432, having shed 7c yesterday.
No 2 stock Fletcher Building was up 2c to 349 but No 3 Contact Energy was down 5c to 900.
Pumpkin Patch continued to rally in response to the softer dollar, up 5c to 340. Fellow exporter Rakon was up 5c to 480.
The Warehouse was down 6c to 605, possibly also due to the weaker currency although it rose against the trend yesterday.
NZX regulation was up 10c to 1000.
Wellington Drive was up 2c to 34 after it announced a major order from a United States customer.
* * *
On Wall Street today, US stocks closed little changed as concerns about subprime mortgage exposure haunted financial shares even as central banks pumped fresh cash into the global financial system.
The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 3.01 points to end at 13,236.53, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index dipped 0.72 of a point to 1,452.92 and the Nasdaq Composite Index shed 2.65 points to 2,542.24.
- NZPA