NZ stocks: Sharemarket edges down early

The sharemarket edged down early, even as top stock Telecom gained in the first few minutes after the market opened while several other leading stocks lost ground.

Telecom was up 3c early to $2.59, reversing some of yesterday's 5c fall.

But Contact Energy fell further, down another 7c early to $5.60, on top of yesterday's 13c decline which came after the company said it expected full year underlying earnings after tax down 30 to 33 per cent, due to lower than expected wholesale electricity prices.

Fletcher Building lost 4c early to $6.85, adding to yesterday's 6c fall.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was down 1.03 points to 2815.58, having lost 17.9 points yesterday.

Among stocks falling early Sky TV lost 10c to $4.30, Port of Tauranga was down 8c to $6.20, Mainfreight slipped 4c to $4.21 and Kiwi Income Property Trust dropped 4c to 91c.

Among stocks gaining early, Sky City lifted 3c to $2.79 and Sanford was up 2c to $5.75, while dual-listed bank ANZ added 50c to $21.00.

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In the United States, a late rebound enabled stocks to end flat, shrugging off lighter-than-expected sales from McDonald's and lowered iPhone prices from Apple .

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.02 per cent to 8764.49, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 0.1 per cent to 939.14, and the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.4 per cent to 1842.40.

- NZPA