NZ Shares: Market down after strong week

After two strong days of trading at the end of last week, the New Zealand sharemarket has edged down in early trade today.

Leading shares Fletcher Building and Telecom led the way down early, with Fletcher dropping 11c to $6.65, while Telecom gave up 5c of its 9c gain from Friday to be at $2.49.

Contact Energy was helping to limit the damage with a 6c gain to $5.85.

The benchmark NZX-50 index was down 2.75 points to 2708.52 soon after opening, after having gained 48 points on Friday.

Stocks gaining early included NZX, up 7c to $6.82, Rakon up 6c to $1.40, Nuplex up 4c to 41, and Trustpower up 4c to $7.15.

Shares to gain 2c early included Fisher & Paykel Healthcare to $2.99, Freightways to $2.68, Infratil to $1.60, NZ Farming Systems Uruguay to 68, and Tower to $1.33.

The New Zealand market's small reversal came after shares in the United States edged up on Friday, after a strong surge which saw the Dow Jones industrial average rise 22.7 per cent in six weeks, its largest six-week gain since 1938.

"The rate of deceleration in the economy is slowing," said David Lutz, managing director of trading at Stifel Nicolaus Capital Markets in Baltimore.

"From a macro standpoint, the reason for a lot of the drive is just that we're continuing to get data points that show things are beginning to operate very well in the credit markets."

The Dow rose 0.1 per cent to 8131.33, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index climbed 0.5 per cent to 869.60, and the Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.2 per cent to 1673.07.

- NZPA