NZ sharemarket continues drift lower

By NZPA

Friday 20th April 2007

The sharemarket continued its directionless drift of most of this month, wandering slowly lower in early business today.

The benchmark NZSX-50 index was down 6.27 points to 4174.39 at 10.10am.

Top stock Telecom fell 3c, as it did yesterday, to $4.82, and number two stock Fletcher Building was down 4c to $11.45.

Only three other stocks in the top 50 moved more than two cents -- Sky TV was down 5c to $6.20, Freightways down 3c to $4.21 and Hellaby was up 3c to $4.04.

Life Pharmacies was down 2c to 83c after filing its takeover offer for Pharmacy Brands.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished at a record high above 12,800 points for a second straight day as robust earnings news fuelled modest gains for blue chips.

Better-than-expected earnings from financial heavyweight Bank of America helped support the Dow, which managed a slight gain from a day earlier.

The benchmark Dow index rose 5.20 points to 12,809.04 at the closing bell, notching up a new high after closing at 12,803.84 a day earlier.

The other US share gauges failed to keep their heads above water, however.

The broad-market Standard and Poor's 500 index lost 1.73 points to a preliminary close of 1,470.77 and the tech-dominated Nasdaq composite index ended down 5.15 points at 2,505.35.

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