The New Zealand sharemarket slipped in early trade, with Contact Energy shares falling after the company reported flat underlying earnings in the six months to December.
Contact today said its underlying earnings after tax for the half year were up just 0.3 per cent from a year earlierto $80.1 million, as high hydro inflows resulted in low wholesale prices.
Shortly after the sharemarket opened today, Contact shares were leading the decline with a fall of 10c, or 1.7 per cent, to $5.70. Among other leading shares Fletcher Building lifted 1c to $7.91 and Telecom was unchanged on $2.36.
Overall, the benchmark NZX-50 index was down 3.99 points to 3125.78 around 10.15am, having risen 22.7 points yesterday.
Other shares falling early today included Sky TV, down 2c to $4.80, and The Warehouse down 2c to $3.71.
Shares rising early included NZ Refining Co, up 3c to $3.43, Nuplex up 2c to $3.35, and Freightways up 2c to $3.04.
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In the United States stocks ended flat to slightly lower as investors held back ahead of congressional testimony by Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, while scattered buying lifted shares of health insurers and banks.
The Dow Jones industrial average ended provisionally down 0.2 per cent at 10,383.38, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index dipped 0.1 per cent to end unofficially at 1108.01, and the Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 0.1 per cent to close unofficially at 2242.03.
