Wellington, Jan 14 NZPA - The New Zealand sharemarket remained positive when it opened this morning.

The benchmark NZSX-50 index was up 3.481 points, or 0.125 percent, to 2778.123 at 10.15am.

The sharemarket managed to brush off negative news yesterday after a poor business confidence survey and Standard & Poor's downgrade on the outlook for foreign currency debt saw the New Zealand dollar fall to a one-month low.

In early trading today Contact Energy was up 8c to 735, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare 2c to 322, Auckland Airport 1c to 170, New Zealand Oil and Gas 1c to 123 and Ryman 1c to 143.

Top-stock Telecom was down 1c to 251 after reaching a two-month high yesterday.

Also down were Fletcher Building 4c to 595 and Pike River Coal 2c to 101.

In the United States, the Dow fell for a fifth straight day as investors fretted over what many expect will be a gloomy earnings season, overshadowing a boost in financials on bets US authorities will take toxic assets off banks' books.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended higher as rising oil prices lifted energy shares and biotechnology companies gained as investors bet they will be among the few sectors with growing earnings.

The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 25.65 points, or 0.30 percent, to close unofficially at 8448.32. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 1.38 points, or 0.16 percent, at 871.64 and the Nasdaq Composite Index added 7.67 points, or 0.50 percent, at 1546.46.

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