NZ shares little changed on quiet day

The New Zealand sharemarket closed flat after rising slightly in early trading after receiving a positive lead from Wall Street on Friday.

The benchmark NZX-50 closed down 0.064 points at 3352.658 after opening up around 2.747 points. Trading was reduced today by the Wellington Anniversary holiday.

The Australian market was firm today even though it was knocked by a profit downgrade by retailer Woolworths. Wall Street was boosted by a strong performance by General Electric, which rose 7.1 per cent to its highest intraday level since November 2008, after reporting stronger-than-expected earnings.

Air NZ was unchanged at 142 as the investors continued to absorb its move to buy 14.99 per cent of Virgin Blue. Commentators are optimistic the investment will do better than its previous foray into Australia via airline Ansett.

Kathmandu was unchanged at 210 after the Sydney Morning Herald speculated about the future of the company's poorly performing United Kingdom stores, while quoting the company saying it was under no pressure to make a decision.

Steel & Tube rose 3c to 230 and Mainfreight rose 1c to 802. Fletcher Building rose 4c to 781 and SkyCity rose 3c to 327. Hellaby rose 4c to 225 and NZX rose 3c to 171. Goodman Fielder rose 3c to 174.

Telecom was unchanged at 231.

Restaurant Brands fell 7c to 251, The Warehouse fell 1c to 362 and TrustPower fell 4c to 720. Contact Energy fell 4c to 626 and SkyTV fell 6c to 521.

In the US, the Dow and S&P 500 rose as General Electric Co's earnings put a positive tone on the economic recovery, snapping a two-day losing skid for the benchmark index.

The Nasdaq was pulled lower by Google, ending a week marked by investors pulling back from outperforming technology shares.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 49.04 points, or 0.41 per cent, to end at 11,871.84. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 3.09 points, or 0.24 per cent, to 1283.35. The Nasdaq Composite Index shed 14.75 points, or 0.55 per cent, to 2689.54.

Google Inc shares were down 2.4 per cent as confidence that chief executive Larry Page would rejuvenate the internet search company wavered.

- NZPA