Sharemarket falls early after 11 days of gains

After rising for the previous 11 trading days, the New Zealand sharemarket started lower today as equity markets in the United States took a breather.

From below 2740 points in mid-July, the benchmark NZX-50 index reached 3018.5 yesterday, its highest level since last October. But after 15 minutes of trading today, the index was down 10.39 points to 3008.08.

Among leading stocks, Fletcher Building lost 5c early to $7.22, Contact Energy was down 5c to $6.24, and Telecom was down 1c to $2.87.

NZ Farming Systems Uruguay gained 3c after reporting a public offer of US$30 million ($46.2 million) of bonds in Uruguay overnight closed substantially over-subscribed.

Proceeds from the offer are to be used to provide long-term debt financing for continuing development of intensive dairy production on the company's farms in Uruguay.

NZ Oil & Gas, which reported revenue from the Tui oilfield was $13.9m in the fourth quarter, only about a 10th of the $138.7m revenue for the full year to June, was down 2c to $1.60.

Among shares rising early, Steel & Tube was up 5c to $3.05, Mainfreight gained 4c to $4.50, Methven was up 4c to $1.35, Air NZ was up 2c to $1.06 and Ebos Group added 2c to $5.32.

Shares falling early included Nuplex, down 5c to $1.82, Tower down 3c to $1.81, Sky City down 3c to $3.21, Auckland Airport down 3c to $1.70, and Sky TV down 2c to $4.38.

***

In the US, the Dow and the S&P 500 dipped, recovering from earlier declines, as investors shrugged off weak consumer confidence data and focused on positive earnings reports.

Stocks in the healthcare sector led the market's afternoon rebound, with biotech shares up a day after Amgen's strong quarterly earnings report.

The Dow Jones industrial average shed 0.1 per cent to 9096.72, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 0.3 per cent to 979.62, but the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.4 per cent to 1975.51.

- NZPA