Sharemarket flat early at start of week

Monday 16th May 2011

The New Zealand sharemarket was flat in early trading, as key stock Telecom pushed back toward the level of the 14-month high reached last Thursday.

About 15 minutes after the market opened for the week, the benchmark NZX-50 index was down 0.77 points to 3535.02, having slipped 4.5 points on Friday.

Telecom (NZX: TEL ) shares were up 1.5c early to $2.32 as the stock remained within striking distance of Thursday's $2.35 peak.

Restaurant Brands (NZX: RBD ) was up 4c early to $2.53 on low volume, and retailer The Warehouse (NZX: WHS ) added 2c to $3.76, just below the five-montth high $3.77 reached on Friday.

Fletcher Building (NZX: FBU ) was down 2c early to $8.90, Auckland Airport (NZX: AIA ) lost 2c to $2.28, and Contact Energy (NZX: CEN ) dropped 2c to $5.97.

In the United States, stocks ended a second week of losses on a down note, reflecting growing worries that stocks are on the precipice of a pullback.

Concern about slowed growth worldwide, the coming end of a supportive Federal Reserve policy and the fear of a worsening euro-zone debt crisis are undermining the stock market's ability to maintain an upward direction.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 0.8% at 12,595.75, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index finished down 0.8% at 1337.77, and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 1.2% at 2828.47.

For the week, the Dow was down 0.3%, the S&P 500 was off 0.2% and the Nasdaq was barely up at 0.03%.

NZPA

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