Modest early rise for NZ sharemarket

NZPA

Tuesday 23rd August 2011

The New Zealand sharemarket made modest early gains, with resins manufacturer Nuplex adding to its gains of yesterday, and Fletcher Building reversing yesterday's decline.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was up 3.99 points to 3278.43, after yesterday gaining 6.6 points.

Nuplex was up 8c early to 261 after gaining 16c yesterday when it reported a 3.6 percent rise in full year profit. Fletcher Building added 7c to 780 after yesterday's 6c fall.

NZ Refining Co was up 6c to 326 on low volume, OceanaGold gained 5c to 274, and Mainfreight lifted 5c to 980. Auckland Airport was up 1.5c to 223 after reporting a 15 percent rise in underlying full year profit to $120.9m.

Contact Energy was up 2c to 518 and Telecom was down 3c to 271.

In the United States, stocks ended slightly higher after four weeks of losses as investors hesitated to take big risks without a catalyst for buying. The market was led by large-cap techs and industrials until late in the session when a rally faded. Banks struggled.

"The ground zero of all worries is financials," said Charlie Smith, chief investment officer of Pittsburgh-based Fort Pitt Capital Group.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.3 percent at 10,854.50, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 0.03 percent at 1123.82, and the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 0.2 percent at 2345.38.

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