NZ Shares: Market slips in early trading

A near 2 per cent decline in Fletcher Building shares helped pull the New Zealand sharemarket down in early trading today.

Fletcher was down 12c to $6.15 soon after opening, while among other leading shares Contact Energy was unchanged on $5.70 and Telecom was down 1c to $2.53.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was down 8.94 points to 2654, having closed down 1.9 points yesterday.

Sky City was up 3c early to $2.82, having lost 6c yesterday after reporting it had raised $185.3 million by selling shares at $2.61 each in an institutional placement.

The few other shares to rise early today included Sky TV, which gained 3c to $4.09 on low volume, and Tower which added 4c to $1.34.

Among stocks to fall early were NZX, down 6c to $6.80, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare down 3c to $3.00, Freightways down 3c to $2.65, and Nuplex down 3c to 33.

Stocks to lose 2c early included ING Medical Properties to $1.12, Methven to $1.11, Property for Industry to $1.10, and Rakon to $1.33.

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In the United States, the Dow and S&P fell after Morgan Stanley revived concerns about the banking sector and the wider economy after it posted its second straight quarterly loss and slashed its dividend.

The Nasdaq, however, eked out a gain after AT&T reported a profit that fell less than expected, and an analyst said its iPhone partnership with Apple is starting to help rather than hurt profits, lifting tech shares.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 1 per cent to 7886.57, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index slid 0.8 per cent to 843.55, and the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.1 per cent to 1646.12.

- NZPA