NZ Shares: Local market ahead early

The New Zealand sharemarket edged up in early trading, after the Dow Jones industrial average in the United States moved into positive territory for the year for the first time since early January.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was up 4.72 points to 2814.54. On Friday the index rose 13.3 points during a week in which it was stuck in a range of about 40 points below 2835.

Top stock Telecom was up 2c to $2.57 early, while Fletcher Building was unchanged on $6.85 after rising 10c on Friday when $12 million worth of its shares traded. Contact Energy was down 2c early to $5.87 after a 20c gain on Friday.

Among shares rising early today, Mainfreight lifted 3c to $4.15, Tower gained 2c to $1.83, Sky City lifted 2c to $2.74, and NZ Farming Systems Uruguay was up 2c to 52. Dual-listed ANZ was up 20c to $21.80, while APN News gained 3c to $1.98.

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In the US the Dow was lifted on Friday by defensive sectors such as pharmaceuticals, while a disappointing outlook from National Semiconductor weighed on technology stocks.

The Dow gained 0.3 per cent to 8799.26, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 0.1 per cent to 946.21, the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.2 per cent to 1858.80.

For the week, the Dow gained 0.4 per cent, the S&P 500 added 0.7 per cent and the Nasdaq rose 0.5 per cent. For the year, the blue-chip Dow average is up 0.3 per cent.

- NZPA