Shares up in early trade

The New Zealand sharemarket edged up in opening trading today, with a dozen stocks gaining between 1 and 3 cents.

The benchmark NZX50 index opened at 3193.573 and rose 7.819 points to 3201.392, or 0.245 per cent, following this morning's Reserve Bank predicted announcement that the official cash rate would remain at 2.5 per cent.

The gain reversed some of yesterday's losses, defying the negative lead of Asian and Australian markets but following a more positive US market.

Fisher & Paykel Appliances was up 1c to 61, AMP NZ Office Trust gained 1c to 74 and Infratil improved 2c to $1.67.

Nuplex lifted 3c to $3.30, Air New Zealand was up 1c to $1.21 and Goodman Property also gained 1c to $1.03.

The Warehouse was up 3c to $3.85, Fletcher Building improved 3c to $8.10 and Contact Energy sparked up 2c to $5.92

Telecom was unchanged at $2.44, as was the ANZ Banking Group at $28 even.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare lost 1c to $3.36, as did Telstra to $4.37. Sky TV was down 2c to $4.90.

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Yesterday Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average fell 73.20 points, or 0.7 per cent, to 10,252.08, with the broader market hurt by heavy selling in Toyota shares. The world's No. 1 car company halted US sales of eight models to fix a potentially dangerous gas pedal problem. Its shares tumbled 4.3 per cent.

Elsewhere, South Korea's Kospi declined 0.7 per cent to 1,625.48. India's market retreated 2.1 per cent, Australia's benchmark slid 1.6 per cent and Taiwan's market fell 0.5 per cent.

China's Shanghai market traded down 1.1 per cent at 2,986.61 late in the session, as investors looked for signs the government was throttling the flow of lending.

However, the US stock market was modestly higher yesterday after the Federal Reserve issued a more upbeat assessment of the US economy.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 45.65 points, or 0.45 per cent, at 10,239.94. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 5.17 points, or 0.47 per cent, at 1,097.34. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 17.12 points, or 0.78 per cent, at 2,220.85.

- NZPA