NZ Shares: Mild recovery after yesterday's battering

After taking a battering yesterday, the New Zealand sharemarket was showing signs of mild recovery soon after opening today.

Yesterday the NZX-50 index dropped more than 2.5 per cent, or 63.6 points, as it followed world markets down. After about 15 minutes of trade today it had regained 14.46 points, or 0.6 per cent, to 2432.4

Among leading stocks, Telecom added 2c early to $2.28, Fletcher Building added 2c to $5.17, and Contact Energy gained 3c to $5.52.

Stocks to record the biggest early gains included Trustpower, up 7c to $7.07, Tower up 5c to $1.33, Guinness Peat Group up 4c to 58, and The Warehouse up 3c to $3.25.

Early losers included Mainfreight down 4c to $3.30 and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare down 2c to $3.37.

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In the United States, several attempts at a stock market rally fell flat, as investors were scared off by grim reports on vehicle sales, continued weakness in the financial sector and worry about the creditworthiness of some major companies.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress that an economic recovery depended on the government's ability to stabilise weak financial markets.

According to preliminary calculations, the Dow Jones industrial average ended down 0.6 per cent, the Standard & Poor's 500 index was also down 0.6 per cent, while the Nasdaq composite index slipped 0.1 per cent. The S&P ended below 700 for the first time since October 1996.

- NZPA