Sharemarket flat as new week starts

Monday 9th May 2011

The New Zealand sharemarket was flat shortly after the start of trading for the new week, after rises in the United States at the end of last week ended four days of losses.

Around 10.15am, the benchmark NZX-50 index was down just 0.02 points to 3506.34, having gained 7.4 points on Friday.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare (NZX: FPH ) was down 4c early to $3.07, Hallenstein Glasson (NZX: HLG ) dropped 3c to $4.00, NZ Oil & Gas (NZX: NZO ) lost 2c to 95, and Telecom (NZX: TEL ) slipped 0.5c to $2.21.

Fletcher Building (NZX: FBU ) gained 3c to $8.99, NZX (NZX: NZX ) was up 2c to $2.27, Sky City (NZX: SKC ) lifted 2c to $3.70, and Contact Energy (NZX: CEN ) added 2c to $5.99.

The US market rebound on Friday was helped by an unexpectedly strong report in US payrolls, tempering worries that stocks could suffer the sharp declines seen last week in commodities.

Gains were trimmed late in the session on speculation that Greece might leave the euro zone.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.4% to 12,638.81, the Standard & Poor's 500 added 0.4% to 1340.20, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.5% to 2827.56.

For the week the Dow lost 1.3%, the S&P fell 1.7% and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.6%.

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