NZ sharemarket starts week at a crawl

The New Zealand sharemarket started the week at a crawl, edging up early on a small number of movements.

Contact Energy fell 5c to $5.80, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare - which went ex-dividend today - fell 2c to $3.12, and Mainfreight fell 6c to $6.13 but on low volume.

Freightways, which joined the list of companies advising of the impact on its bottom line of changes announced in last month's budget, slipped 2c early to $2.83.

The company said it expected to increase its consolidated deferred tax liability as at June 30 this year and reduce the reported net profit after tax for the year to June by an estimated $6 million.

The deferred tax adjustment was a one-off, non-cash accounting entry which had no impact on underlying profitability, cash flows or dividend policy for the year to June, Freightways said.

Ryman Healthcare was up 1c to $2.03, Sky City lifted 1c to $2.94, and Auckland Airport gained 1c to $1.94.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was up 1.21 points to 3035.32, after falling 15.4 points on Friday at the end of a lacklustre week.

GPG shares were unmoved early on 66, having risen 2c on Friday after the investment company's New Zealand-based director Tony Gibbs went public with his opposition to a demerger plan. The plan has not been well received in the market, brokers said.

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In the United States the Standard & Poor's 500 Index and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose modestly on Friday (local time) on relief that the financial regulation bill wouldn't crimp Wall Street profits as badly as feared and as tech company Oracle's strong results revived hopes about business spending.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.1 per cent to 10,143.81, the S&P rose 0.3 per cent to 1076.76, and the Nasdaq was up 0.3 per cent to 2223.48.

The Dow fell 2.9 per cent for the week, the S&P 500 was off 3.6 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite fell 3.7 per cent.

- NZPA