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The New Zealand sharemarket made a flat start to the week, after Wall Street ended last week looking fragile.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index was off 0.66 points to 2758.08 in the first 20 minutes of trading this morning, dragged down by market heavyweight stocks.
Telecom eased 2c to 239, Contact Energy shed 5c to 740 and Fletcher Building slipped 3c to 595.
Other leading stocks to ease included PGG Wrightson 2c to 140 and The Warehouse 1c to 362.
But jeweller Michael Hill International , which slipped 3c on Friday after announcing its latest half year sales figures, rebounded 3c to 57.
Other early morning climbers included Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, 7c to 320, Port of Tauranga 5c to 655, NZOG 1c to 125, and Pike River Coal 1c to 102.
United States stocks slid on Friday after a labour market report showing the worst annual job losses since World War 2 signalled the recession is far from over.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.64 per cent, the tech-laden Nasdaq was down 2.81 per cent and Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 2.13 per cent.
- NZPA