KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket slipped in early trading, after United States equities ended sharply lower on concern General Motors may file for bankruptcy and with a plunge in energy shares following a prediction oil will hit US$25 a barrel.
Among leading stocks in this country, Contact Energy was down 9c early to $6.90, Telecom was up 1c to $2.40 and Fletcher Building unchanged on $5.55.
Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was down 8.26 points to 2722.42.
Yesterday it gained 23.9 points on light volume after the Reserve Bank made a record 1.5 percentage point cut in official interest rates, taking them to 5 per cent.
Stocks falling 5c early today included Nuplex to $3.45, Rakon to $1.35, and Sanford to $5.35.
Those down 3c included Cavalier to $1.98, Freightways to $2.90, Goodman Property Trust to $1.04, Infratil to $1.73 and NZ Oil & Gas to $1.25.
The few stocks rising early included Sky TV, up 3c to $3.48, and ING Medical Properties Trust to $1.10.
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In the US, preliminary closing data showed the Dow Jones industrial average down 2.5 per cent , the Standard & Poor's 500 index down 3.1 per cent and the Nasdaq composite index down 2.9 per cent.
- NZPA
