NZ sharemarket falters

Freightways shares fell 2.9 percent in early trading after the company reported a 7 percent rise in full year net profit to $34.6 million.

The company, whose core express package business contributes most of its revenue and earnings, today said the result included a $3.9m gain on a property sale. Its shares fell 10c early to 330.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZSX-50 index was down 14.43 points to 3136.83, after a 22.41-point rise on Friday.

The faltering start to the week follows a broad fall in stocks on Friday (local time) in the United States, where the major indexes snapped a four-week streak of gains.

Weak consumer sentiment data in the US fuelled concerns about the strength of an economic recovery.

Among stocks to fall early in this country were Sky TV, down 7c to 466, Sanford down 5c to 520, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare down 4c to 335, Michael Hill International down 4c to 67, and Cavalier Corporation down 3c to 247.

Top stock Telecom slipped 2c early to 273, while among the other market leaders Fletcher Building lost 5c to 793, and Contact Energy was unchanged on 635.

The few gains included Port of Tauranga up 5c to 665, Rakon up 2c to 149, Air NZ up 2c to 127, and NZ Farming Systems Uruguay up 2c to 49. NZX gained 14c early but on very low volume.

In the US, the Dow Jones industrial average dipped 0.8 percent to 9321.40, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 0.9 percent to 1004.09, and the technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 1.2 percent to 1985.52.

For the week, the Dow shed 0.5 percent, the S&P fell 0.6 percent and the Nasdaq slid 0.7 percent.