NZ Shares: Market edges up early

The New Zealand sharemarket edged up in early trade as top stock Telecom continued the ascent that took off at the start of April.

Telecom was up 3c early to $2.85, having been as low as $2.24 on April 1, and is now at 6-1/2-month highs.

Among other leading shares, Fletcher Building lost 5c to $6.65, after yesterday benefiting from the Reserve Bank's move to signal lower interest rates are here for many months with a 32c gain.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZSX-50 index was up 4.5 points to 2745.09, having yesterday leapt ahead 41 points.

Mainfreight gained 6c early to $4.61, Hellaby Holdings lifted 3c to 58, Freightways was up 2c to $2.92, and ING Property up 2c to 58.

Steel & Tube lifted 14c to $3.00, Ebos Group gained 7c to $4.92, and Hallenstein Glasson was up 4c to $2.60, but all three were on volume of less than 1000.

Retailer Briscoe Group was unchanged on 82c after reporting first quarter sales 0.1 per cent lower than a year earlier to $90.2 million.

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In the United States, shares were hit by Chrysler's bankruptcy filing which undercut optimism about upbeat corporate profits and reassuring job market data.

Despite that the Standard & Poor's 500 closed out its best month in nine years.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 0.2 per cent to 8168.12, the S&P 500 Index dipped 0.1 per cent to 872.81, but the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.3 per cent to 1717.30.

- NZPA