Market falls back from yesterday's gains

The New Zealand sharemarket fell in early trading, pulling back from gains that yesterday took it to the highest level in 13 months.

Leading shares were down in the first few minutes of trading today with Contact Energy losing 4c to $6.31, Fletcher Building down 2c to $8.43, and Telecom down 2c to $2.55.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was down 9.43 points to 3243.14. Yesterday it peaked at an intraday high of 3257.5 points, its highest level since September 2008, before closing up 31.6 points, a gain of nearly 1 per cent.

Stocks down 2c early today included Methven, to $1.78, NZ Oil & Gas to $1.72, Pike River Coal to $1.11, and Sky City to $3.53. NZX was down 5c to $8.06 and dual-listed ANZ down 21c to $29.49, both on low volumes.

Among the few shares to gain early, Sanford lifted 5c to $4.85, also on low volume.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was up 1c to $3.00, after yesterday falling 6c when it was thought to have been affected by a rise in the New Zealand dollar to a 15-month high of US75.75c. When the market opened today the kiwi was a little below the US75c level.

* **

In the United States, stocks retreated from 12-month highs as disappointing housing and inflation data prompted investors to book recent gains despite strong results from bellwethers including Apple and Caterpillar.

New construction of US homes rose less than expected in September and US producer prices posted an unexpected decline, both pointing to an anaemic economic recovery.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 0.5 per cent at 10,041.48, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 0.6 per cent to 1091.06, and the Nasdaq Composite Index shed 0.6 per cent to 2163.47.

- NZPA