Sharemarket slips early

Tuesday 18th January 2011

The New Zealand sharemarket slipped in early trading, with no lead from markets in the US, which were closed for a public holiday.

About 10.15am, the benchmark NZX-50 index was down 1.4 points to 3352.91, having ended down 15.6 points yesterday.

Port of Tauranga (NZX: POT ) was down 6c to $7.44 in early trading today, Freightways (NZX: FRE ) slipped 2c to $3.27, Sky City (NZX: SKC ) was down 2c to $3.25, Trustpower (NZX: TPW ) dropped 2c to 726, and Sky TV (NZX: SKT ) lost 2c to $5.26.

Among the leading shares, Fletcher Building (NZX: FBU ) edged up 1c to $7.91, Telecom (NZX: TEL ) was unchanged on $2.26 and Contact Energy (NZX: CEN ) slipped 1c to $6.35.

Diligent Board Member Services (NZX: DIL ) gained 7c to 74, after reporting a strong December quarter.

European stock markets closed lower, slipping back as investors consolidated recent gains with no afternoon lead from Wall Street, to provide direction.

Dealers said trade was typically quiet given that New York was closed, leaving the European markets to muddle through, with local features such as BP's massive Russian tie-up with Rosneft the order of the day.

In London, the FTSE 100 index of leading shares closed down 0.27%, in Paris, the CAC 40 slipped 0.2%, and in Frankfurt the DAX was virtually unchanged.

NZPA

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