Early gains for NZX

Shares in Guinness Peat Group lifted 10 per cent in early trading after the company reported a half year loss of £22 million ($53 million).

Chairman Ron Brierley said any significant improvement in the accounting result for the full year to the end of December was "unlikely", but GPG would be well placed to resume its traditional upward trend in 2010.

As GPG shares rose 8c early to 88c, the benchmark NZX-50 index gained 12.27 points to 3121.61 around 10.15am, following on from a 32.9-point gain on Friday.

Also pulling the market ahead, Sky TV lifted 16c to $4.53, Hellaby Holdings added 10c to $1.27, Hallenstein Glasson was up 5c to $2.80, and Ebos Group gained 3c to $5.78.

But two leading stocks lost ground early, with Fletcher Building losing 8c to $7.94, and Telecom down 2c to $2.77.

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In the United States, stocks mostly slipped on Friday after a weak consumer sentiment report offset positive news from bellwethers Dell and Intel.

Support from the two companies, however, let the Nasdaq eke out a tiny gain.

The Dow Jones industrial average declined 0.4 per cent to end at 9544.20, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost only 0.2 per cent to 1028.93, while the Nasdaq Composite Index inched up 0.1 per cent to close at 2028.77.

For the week, the Dow advanced 0.4 per cent, while the S&P 500 gained 0.3 per cent and the Nasdaq rose 0.4 per cent.

- NZPA