NZ Shares: Market creeps ahead early

The New Zealand sharemarket crept ahead early, helped by small gains for some leading stocks.

Fletcher Building was up 6c early to $6.20 after losing 13c yesterday, while Telecom went 2c ahead to $2.65 adding to its 9c rise yesterday.

Telecom's shares are at their highest level in more than two months, having dropped as low as $2.22 in early March.

The news is not so good for another market leader Contact Energy, down 5c early today to $5.55 after a 10c fall yesterday, only slightly above the multi-year low of $5.46 reached last week.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was up 4.73 points to 2663.58, after losing 4.1 points yesterday.

Other stocks rising early included Methven, up 3c to $1.13, and Auckland Airport up 2c to $1.70.

Along with Contact, the other main early fall was at The Warehouse, which declined 3c to $3.42.

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In the United States, stocks rose in volatile trade as better-than-expected results from several regional banks lifted financial shares, overshadowing disappointing economic data and anaemic outlooks from economic bellwethers like United Parcel Service.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 0.9 per cent to 7957.06, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 1 per cent to 851.92, and the Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.4 per cent to 1652.21.

- NZPA