Sharemarket slips early

Thursday 16th December 2010

In early trading Fletcher Building shares reversed almost all the 10c lost yesterday after the company signalled a hostile takeover bid for Australian company Crane Group.

Within the first few minutes of trading today, Fletcher Building (NZX: FBU ) shares were up 8c to 783, with investors appearing to look more favourably on the bid, which values Crane at $A740 million ($NZ982 million).

Also doing well early was NZ Refining Co, (NZX: NZO ) up to its highest level in more than eight months with a 9c early gain to 410, on top of a 10c gain yesterday.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was down 2.79 points to 3295.14, having gained 9 points yesterday.

Skellerup (NZX: SKL ), which gained 1c yesterday after lifting its profit forecast, was up 5c to 110, Tourism Holdings (NZX: THL ) gained 2c to 79, and Xero (NZX: XRO ) lifted 2c to 237 to be equal with the high reached yesterday.

The Warehouse (NZX: WHS ) was down 6c early to 355, Mainfreight (NZX: MFT ) lost 4c to 766, Contact Energy (NZX: CEN ) dropped 3c to 617, and Nuplex (NZX: NPX ) lost 3c to 349.

In the US, stocks ended lower with a third late-day sell-off in a row, suggesting it may be difficult to chalk further gains as the year comes to a close.

Based on preliminary data, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 0.2% to end unofficially at 11,457.47, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 0.5% to 1235.24, and the Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 0.4% to 2617.22.

NZPA

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