Quiet start on NZ sharemarket

NZPA

Thursday 21st July 2011

The New Zealand sharemarket started the day quietly, as investors continued to wait for a debt-limit deal in the United States.

Around 10.20am the benchmark NZX-50 index was down 2.17 points to 3406.2, after yesterday climbing 16.3 points.

Contact Energy was down 4c to 532, Fisher & Paykel Appliances lost 2c to 60, and Sky City dropped 2c to 355. Xero added 5c to 220 and Skellerup was up 2c to 128.

Telecom was unchanged at 255.5, with another key stock, Fletcher Building, also unchanged, at 812.

In the US, the stock market edged lower after yesterday's (local time) large gains.

Analysts said concerns about lifting the US government debt limit outweighed strong earnings from Apple and a slew of new corporate deals.

"In this environment, stringing together a few days like yesterday is going to be tough," said Brad Sorensen, director of market analysis at Charles Schwab.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.1 percent to close at 12,571.91, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 0.1 percent to 1,325.84, and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.4 percent to 2814.23.

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