NZ sharemarket edges lower early

NZPA

Monday 18th July 2011

The New Zealand sharemarket edged lower in its first few minutes of trading today, continuing on from nine consecutive trading days of losses.

Around 10.15am today the benchmark NZX-50 index was down 1.54 points to 3404.84, having fallen 3.2 points on Friday.

NZX was down 3c early to 227, Xero lost 3c to 212, Kathmandu dropped 2c to 213, and Telecom fell 1.5c to 247.

Mainfreight lifted 7c early to 1018, Scott Technology was up 4c to 132, Tower gained 2c to 149, and Ryman Healthcare added 2c to 268, while Fletcher Building was unchanged on 805.

In the United States on Friday (local time), Google's earnings, which beat the most bullish forecasts, drove the market higher.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.34 percent to end at 12,479.73, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 0.6 percent to finish at 1316.14, and the Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 1 percent to close at 2789.80.

For the week, the S&P 500 ended down 2.1 percent, while the Dow lost 1.4 percent and the Nasdaq fell 2.5 percent.

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