Sharemarket's week begins quietly

The New Zealand sharemarket started a week with a whimper but the price of market operator NZX bolted higher.

The benchmark NZX-50 index closed down 7.878 points, or 0.25 per cent, at 3138.579 after initially opening up 11.2 points.

The standout performer was NZX, which rose 41c, or 5.19 per cent, to 831 and traded as high at 848. It has more than doubled from the 418 on January 23 this year.

NZX is quadrupling the number of its shares via a stock split, and announced plans to increase dividends annually for the next five years.

"The dividend is good growth for five years," said Stephen Wright at ASB Securities.

The share split also makes shares more affordable for investors.

Otherwise the market took its lead from the Australian market, which was weaker, Mr Wright said.

With Fletcher Building down 13c to 768 and Telecom down 5c to 236, the market did well to be down overall by only a small amount. Turnover was worth $86.2 million. There were 34 rises and 44 falls among the 119 stocks traded.

Michael Hill rose 1c to 64, and Tourism Holdings rose 2c to 71.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rose 12c to 341, and the lower NZ dollar was seen as helping the company. NZOG, which has started gas flows from its Kupe field, was up 1c at 173 and Tower was up 3c to 203.

Pumpkin Patch rose 5c to 198.

The Warehouse rose 3c to 415 with developments awaited in its industrial relations situation.

Property trusts were mostly unchanged after rising on Friday, though Property for Industry rose 1c to 118.

Port of Tauranga rose 2c to 707, Nuplex rose 2c to 161 and Cavalier Carpets rose 8c to 250.

APN fell 13c to 297.

Hallenstein Glassons fell 14c to 315, Fisher & Paykel Appliances fell 1c to 57 and Ebos fell 5c to 565. Contact was unchanged at 585.

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In the United States, stocks advanced on Friday (local time) as data showed the economy shed far fewer jobs than expected last month, brightening the outlook for the economy and profits.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.2 per cent to end at 10,388.90, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 0.6 per cent to finish at 1105.98, and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 1 per cent to close at 2194.35.

For the week, the Dow rose 0.8 per cent, the S&P 500 gained 1.3 per cent and the Nasdaq advanced 2.6 per cent.

- NZPA