NZ Shares: Major stocks lead market down early

Major stocks led the New Zealand sharemarket down at the start of the new week.

Fletcher Building was down 17c, or 2.8 per cent, to $5.95 early, with Telecom down 5c, or 2.2 per cent, to $2.28, and Contact Energy down 3c to $6.07.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was down 15.94 points to 2583.08, following a 34.2-point drop on Friday.

Other shares down early included Mainfreight, which lost 4c on low volume to $3.91, NZ Farming Systems Uruguay down 3c to 75c, and Freightways down 2c to $2.85.

Shares rising early included Hallenstein Glasson, which was up 3c to $2.20, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare up 2c to $3.08, and The Warehouse up 2c to $3.53.

Port of Tauranga was up 10c to $5.00 but on low volume.

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The early decline in this country came after stocks slid in the United States on Friday as the Federal Reserve's plan to rekindle consumer and small business lending fell short of expectations and General Electric was hit by analysts' bearish comments.

The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 1.7 per cent to 7278.38, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index shed 2 per cent to 768.54, and the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 1.8 per cent to 1457.27.

Even so, the S&P 500 finished its best two-week run since 1974 as markets extended last week's bounce off 12-year lows. For the year, however, the broad index remains down 15 per cent.

- NZPA