Sharemarket opens with modest gain

The New Zealand sharemarket started the week with a modest gain, despite an early drop by Fletcher Building shares.

Fletcher was down 3c early to $6.80, while among other leading shares Contact Energy lifted 6c to $5.89 and Telecom was unchanged on $2.71.

SkyCity gained 1c early to $2.79 after Friday's 10c rise when $18.7 million shares in the company were traded.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was up 7.3 points to 2815.52, having gained 6.7 points on Friday.

Fisher and Paykel Appliances were unchanged on 71c, after a 4c rise on Friday when $5m worth of its shares were traded.

Stocks gaining early included Sanford up 10c to $5.30, Auckland Airport up 2c to $1.56, NZX up 2c to $7.60, Property for Industry up 2c to $1.19, and Air New Zealand up 1c to 92.

Early declines were recorded by Trustpower, down 5c to $7.45, Mainfreight down 3c to $4.07, and Infratil down 1c to $1.73.

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In the United States stocks closed out their best week in four months on Friday on a flat note as strong earnings from IBM softened the blow of disappointing results from General Electric.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.4 per cent to 8743.94, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index dipped 0.04 per cent to 940.38, and the Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.1 per cent to 1886.61.

For the week, the Dow rose 7.3 per cent, the S&P 500 gained 7 per cent and the Nasdaq climbed 7.4 per cent.

- NZPA