NZ Shares: Early gains by local market

The New Zealand sharemarket made small early gains, with leading stocks rising modestly.

The unspectacular start came after stocks in the United States edged higher as investors bought beaten-down technology and commodity shares, while a positive broker comment on Goldman Sachs boosted the financial sector.

In this country, top stock Telecom was up 1c to $2.71, having lost 10c yesterday after gaining 10c on Wednesday.

Fletcher Building was up 3c early to $6.53, on top of a 9c gain yesterday, while Contact Energy added 1c to $5.63.

Around 10.20am the benchmark NZX-50 index was up 8.16 points to 2749.84, after closing down 8.9 points yesterday.

Stocks rising early included NZ Refining up 10c to $7.00, NZ Oil & Gas up 3c to $1.54, Steel & Tube up 2c to $2.78, Methven up 2c to $1.32, Mainfreight up 2c to $4.22, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare up 2c to $2.85, and Air NZ up 2c to 89.

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In the US, trading was choppy in light volumes for most of the day as investors remained cautious ahead of more corporate earnings reports in the coming weeks.

Alcoa set a positive tone when it kicked off the earnings season with a smaller-than-expected loss after the bell on Wednesday (local time).

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.1 per cent to 8183.17, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 0.4 per cent to 882.68, and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.3 per cent to 1752.55.

- NZPA