NZ Shares: Market lifts early

An early gain by Fletcher Building has helped the New Zealand sharemarket to a modest lift in the first few minutes after the start of trading.

Fletcher was up 6c to $6.81 having lost 10c yesterday, while among other leading stocks Telecom was up 2c to $2.60 with Contact Energy flat on $6.12.

The benchmark NZX-50 index was up 8.05 points to 2820.75, after closing down 16.5 points yesterday.

Other early gains included NZX up 10c to $8.10, NZ Oil & Gas up 4c to $1.53, and Pike River Coal up 4c to $1.12.

Shares gaining 2c early included Fisher & Paykel Healthcare to $3.22, Hellaby Holdings to 67, Ryman Healthcare to $1.62, and Tower to $1.65.

Freightways lost 3c early to $3.00, while Sky City lost 2c to $2.89.

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In the United States, stocks were mixed as investors scooped up defensive shares, including Pfizer, while energy companies' stocks climbed as oil hit a six-month high.

But financial and technology shares declined after leading the recent rally from bear market lows.

Worries over whether an apparent lack of incentives to drive the market higher would put an end to the recent rally helped put a cap on gains.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.6 per cent to 8469.11, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was off 0.1 per cent to 908.35, and the Nasdaq Composite Index was down 0.9 per cent at 1715.92.

- NZPA