Fletcher shares surge pushes up NZX

Fletcher Building shares reclaimed much of their losses of the past two days in early trading, shooting up 23c, or 3.3 per cent, to $7.25.

On Monday and Tuesday, Fletcher shares dropped 30c in total ahead of today's full year results, which showed the company made a $46 million full year net loss, including unusual items of $360 million.

Net earnings after tax before unusual items for the year ended June 30 were $314m, down 33 per cent from $467m the previous year.

The Fletcher Building share price gain helped push up the benchmark NZX-50 index, which gained 6.05 points to 3061.52 around 10.15am.

Among the few other stocks to gain early, Nuplex was up 3c to $2.15.

Stocks falling early included Contact Energy, down 7c to $6.27, Trustpower down 5c to $7.55, Mainfreight down 5c to $4.90, and The Warehouse down 3c to $4.02. Port of Tauranga lost 10c to $6.50 on low volume.

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In the United States, stocks fell, the Dow Jones industrial average closed down 1 per cent to 9241.67, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 1.3 per cent to 994.33, and the technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index slid 1.1 per cent to 1969.73.

- NZPA