NZ sharemarket slips early, Telecom at four-month low

Monday 28th February 2011

The New Zealand sharemarket was lower in early trading, with key stock Telecom dropping to its lowest level in nearly four months.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index fell 4.86 points to 3359.05, with Telecom (NZX: TEL ) down 3c to $2.06. On Friday the index ended the day down 4.4 points.

Stock exchange operator NZX (NZX: NZX ) gained 4c early to $1.65, after reporting an 18% rise in normalised net profit to $11.7 million.

Nuplex (NZX: NPX ) lifted 4c to $3.35 after falling 8c on Friday, Mainfreight (NZX: MFT ) lifted 7c to $8.15 on low volume, Steel & Tube (NZX: STU ) gained 5c to $2.64, and Fletcher Building (NZX: FBU ) was up 4c to $8.67, while Contact Energy (NZX: CEN ) was down 4c to $6.20.

In the US stocks bounced from a three-day sell-off to rise on Friday (local time), as oil prices stabilised, but unease over the Libyan rebellion could be enough to keep buying in check.

Friday's bounce followed a late recovery Thursday that showed buyers were ready to support shares after a bout of selling.

Analysts have been calling for a correction in stocks, with the Standard & Poor's 500 Index up 25.8% since the start of September. Much weaker-than-average volume on Friday cast doubt on stocks' ability to move higher.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.5% to end at 12,130.45, the S&P 500 advanced 1.1% to finish at 1319.88, and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 1.6% to close at 2781.05.

For the week, the Dow lost 2.1%, the Nasdaq declined 1.9%, and the S&P 500 lost 1.7%.

NZPA

Comments from our readers

No comments yet