KEY POINTS:
After falling every day last week, the New Zealand sharemarket opened strongly today in the wake of a barnstorming late rally by United States equities.
But there was no follow through and the market gave up its gains.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed down 2.619 points, or 0.102
per cent, at 2575.482. Volume was worth $55 million. There were 42 rises and 34 falls.
"It is pretty disappointing with the Dow Jones up strongly on Friday night," said Grant Williamson, partner at Hamilton, Hindin, Greene.
"There is just not a lot of buying support in this market. People are still very nervous about what the future holds," he said.
Uncertainty surrounding American financial services company Citigroup was a focus of investors around the world today.
It has recently lost more than one-quarter of its market value on growing worries over whether it has enough capital to withstand billions of dollars of potential losses.
Telecom gave up gains to finish down 4c at 220. Contact Energy was down 10c at 629 but Fletcher Building, which announced a sale of capital notes, was up 12c to 554.
Port of Tauranga was down 40c at 565, Mainfreight was down 11c at 410 and Infratil was unchanged at 163.
Pumpkin Patch was up 11c at 91 after announcing a buyback of its shares.
Lyttelton Port was down 3c at 265 as a stand in the market by its majority council owner continued.
Sanford was up 4c at 525. Lion Nathan was up 50c at 1050.
Westpac was up 35c at 1875. Vector rose 8c to 203 and The Warehouse was down 4c at 353.
SkyTV was down 11c at 315 and Ebos was down 10c at 385.
Fisher & Paykel Appliances was up 6c at 124.
US stocks surged toward the end of the Friday session on reports that President-elect Barack Obama has chosen his point person to combat the worst US economic crisis in 80 years.
Reports in the late afternoon that Mr Obama will nominate Timothy Geithner, president of the New York Federal Reserve, as his Treasury secretary triggered a rapid turn in markets that were wallowing after the week's heavy sell-off in equities.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 6.5 per cent at 8046.42. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index surged 6.3 per cent to 800.03. The Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 5.2 per cent to 1384.35.
- NZPA