Positive start on NZX

The New Zealand sharemarket has started the week positively, with investors again showing interest in Fletcher Building shares.

After gaining 28c in total on the last two trading days of last week, Fletcher Building shares gained another 6c early today to $7.92, as hope rises that New Zealand is out of recession and indications point to strength in the Australian economy.

The benchmark NZX-50 index is up 10 points to 3109, after it lifted 6.6 points on Friday.

Other shares lifting early included Mainfreight up 5c to $4.90, NZ Refining up 4c to $4.99, Freightways up 3c to $3.00, Methven up 2c to 152, and Auckland Airport up 2c to $1.79.

Leading stock Telecom was down 6c to $2.73, and Sky TV lost 6c to $4.40.

Sky City lost 6c to $3.20 and NZX dropped 8c to $7.62 early, but both were on low volume.

***

In the United States, stocks closed higher on Friday as investors focused on the bright side of a mixed payrolls report that showed smaller-than-expected job cuts in August, although the unemployment rate hit a 26-year high.

Gains were broad-based, with technology shares leading the charge.

The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 1 per cent to end at 9441.27, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 1.3 per cent to 1016.40, and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 1.8 per cent to close at 2018.78.

But for the week, the Dow was down 1.1 per cent, the S&P 500 was off 1.2 per cent and the Nasdaq lost 0.5 per cent due to a sharp sell-off in the first three days of the week.

- NZPA