NZ sharemarket opens flat

The New Zealand sharemarket opened today relatively unchanged following a flat read from Wall Street.

At about 10am, the benchmark NZX-50 index opened up 2.324 points, or 0.07 per cent, at 3036.947.

Australian Telecommunication company Telstra was down 1c to $4.02, after the company announced on Friday it would take a A$170 ($211) million non-cash impairment charge on the carrying value of its Hong Kong-based telco CSL New World.

The gainers included Contact Energy, up 1c to $5.71, and Fletcher Building, up 3c to $7.63, New Zealand Refining, up 10c to $3.12, Michael Hill International up 1c to $1.58, and Sky City up 1c to $3.04.

Restaurant Brands rose 1c to $2.43, Ryman Healthcare rose 1c to $2.04, and Hellaby Holdings rose 2c to $1.87.

Telecom was unchanged at $1.99 following last week's confirmation of speculation it is selling the consumer part of its AAPT business in Australia and its stake in an internet service provider there.

Pike River Coal fell 3c to 96, New Zealand Oil & Gas dropped 1c to $1.23 and Infratil fell 1c to $1.62.

Also easing were Tower down 2c to $1.85, Steel & Tube 1c to $2.20, and Ebos Group 5c to $6.35.

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In the United States, stocks closed little changed on Friday, though Wall Street wrapped up its best month in a year after the earnings season rounded the final turn with a group of strong results that offset the impact of poor economic data.

The second GDP data disappointed investors showing the economy had slowed, but the mood changed quickly when Chicago PMI and University of Michigan consumer confidence had encouraging readings.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 1.22 points, or 0.01 per cent, to 10,465.94. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 0.05 points, or 0 per cent to 1101.58. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 3.01 points, or 0.13 per cent, to 2245.70.

For the week, the Dow rose 0.4 per cent, the S&P 500 lost 0.1 per cent and the Nasdaq dipped 0.7 per cent.

- NZPA