NZ Shares: Market opens week with a fall

The New Zealand sharemarket started the week with a fall, following equities in the United States down.

Leading shares were at the forefront of today's early decline with Contact Energy giving up 15c to $6, Fletcher Building down 10c to $6.30 and Telecom down 2c to $2.26.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was down 17.19 points to 2636.28, following a 37.2-point gain on Friday.

After a strong second half to last week, Sky TV was up 4c early to $4.19, following a Forsyth Barr research report which described the company as "recession-resistant" and indicated the shares were at a bargain price.

The few other shares to rise early included Pike River Coal, up 3c to 89, Cavalier Corp up 2c to $1.75, and Rakon up 2c to $1.30.

Among the stocks that fell early were Sky City, which dropped 3c to $2.87, Tower 2c to $1.34, Nuplex 2c to 87, Ebos Group 2c to $4.73, Air NZ 2c to 92, and Steel & Tube 2c to $2.60.

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In the US, Wall Street capped a strong week on a down note on Friday as investors booked profits in the wake of the recent upward surge and bank shares dropped after bank executives indicated March had been a tougher month for the industry than the previous two.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 1.9 per cent to 7776.18, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index shed 2 per cent to 815.94, and the Nasdaq Composite Index slid 2.6 per cent to 1545.20.

For the week, the blue-chip index rose 6.8 per cent, the S&P 500 gained 6.2 per cent and the Nasdaq rose 6 per cent.

- NZPA