Sharemarket makes solid early gains

Tuesday 7th June 2011

The New Zealand sharemarket gained in early trading, despite falling stock prices in the United States where weak data is supporting a bearish outlook for the economy.

Around 10.25am the benchmark NZX-50 index was up 7.46 points to 3522.22, after losing 11.1 points on Friday.

Among leading shares, Contact Energy (NZX: CEN ) added 5c early to $5.90, and Fletcher Building (NZX: FBU ) gained 3c to $8.90, while Telecom (NZX: TEL ) slipped 1c to $2.31.5.

Ryman Healthcare (NZX: RYM ) was up 7c to $2.78, Sky TV (NZX: SKT ) lifted 4c to $5.72, Freightways (NZX: FRE ) added 4c to $3.30, Sky City (NZX: SKC ) was up 3c to $3.61, and Nuplex (NZX: NPX ) gained 3c to 43.13.

Mainfreight (NZX: MFT ) fell 7c to $9.81, OceanaGold (NZX: OGC ) dropped 7c to $3.03, Trustpower (NZX: TPW ) was down 5c to $7.40, and Cavalier Corp (NZX: CAV ) fell 3c to $3.81.

In the US, stocks have been battered over the past five weeks on a number of disappointing reports, culminating in Friday's (local time) US employment report, which showed employers added a meagre 54,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate rose to 9.1%.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 0.5% to 12,090.11, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 1.1% to 1286.17, and the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 1.1% to 2702.56.

NZPA

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