Early fall for NZ shares

The New Zealand sharemarket fell when it started trading for the week, after stocks slid in the United States on Friday following a report from bank JPMorgan Chase of deep fourth-quarter loan losses.

Prominent among companies losing ground early today in this country was insurer and investment manager Tower, which fell 10c or 4.6 per cent to $2.06, although the decline was on a low volume of share sales.

Contact Energy was down 8c early to $6.10, Port of Tauranga fell 5c to $7.05, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare dropped 3c to $3.35, and NZ Oil & Gas was down 3c to $1.59. Telecom slipped 1c to $2.50 and Fletcher Building was also down 1c, to $8.30.

The benchmark NZX-50 index isdown 8.9 points to 3249, after declining 20.4 points on Friday.

Stocks gaining early included NZ Refining Co, up 8c to $3.84, and Cavalier Corp up 5c to $2.75, both on low volume.

***

In the US, JPMorgan Chase's loan losses raised concerns about bank profits, while weaker-than-expected results from a consumer survey increased unease about incomes and unemployment.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 0.9 per cent to 10,609.65, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 1.1 per cent to 1136.03, and the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 1.2 per cent to 2287.99.

For the week, the Dow ended down 0.1 per cent, the S&P fell 0.8 per cent and the Nasdaq fell 1.3 per cent.

- NZPA