Wellington, June 23 NZPA - The New Zealand sharemarket opened lower this morning, but selling was more muted than seen on overseas markets. The benchmark NZSX-50 index was down 26.2 points or 0.94 percent to 2768.71 in the first 10 minutes of trading.

Wellington, June 18 NZPA - All the major banks have agreed to participate in a home insulation programme which starts next month, Prime Minister John Key said today.

Wellington, June 17 NZPA - Nearly three quarters of New Zealand's electricity was generated from renewable sources in March, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Economic Development.

Wellington, June 3 NZPA - The economic downturn has hit Pacific Island nations particularly hard because many were already dealing with challenges, Foreign Minister Murray McCully says.

Wellington, June 2 NZPA - A plan to build a rice husk-fuelled electricity generator for a Filipino village has won a transnational student business competition.

Wellington, June 2 NZPA - Genesis Energy has been strongly criticised by Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee for leaving hundreds of prepay customers "high and dry" without power at the weekend.

Wellington, May 28 NZPA - Kiwibank will drop a $200 fee for customers seeking to increase their mortgages to install subsidised home insulation and heating. In the budget revealed today, the Government set aside $323.3 million over four years to make New Zealand houses warmer.

By Maggie Tait of NZPA Wellington, May 28 NZPA - A budget designed to deal with chill economic times has delivered one warm fuzzy -- a insulation grant of up to $1800 for homeowners which is expected to provide nearly 11,000 jobs over four years.

By Maggie Tait of NZPA Wellington, May 28 NZPA - A budget designed to deal with chill economic times has delivered one warm fuzzy -- a grant up to $1800 for homeowners, which is not subject to income testing.

Wellington, May 27 NZPA - Bathroom products company Methven reported a 3.1 percent rise in net profit to $10.1 million, which the company said demonstrated the effectiveness of its strategy to diversify revenue sources.