Wellington, Nov 19 NZPA - The New Zealand sharemarket was flat in early trading.

Mainfreight lost 5c to 560 early after reporting a 29 percent fall in net profit before abnormals to $12.2 million for the six months to the end of September.

But the company said that importantly, second quarter performance saw revenues and profitability improve markedly from the first quarter's results.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was unchanged on 305 after it said net profit rose 31 percent to $37m for the six months to September.

The record profit was a result of strong revenue growth in the obstructive sleep apnea product group, continuing strong demand for respiratory products and favourable foreign exchange hedging results, the company said.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZSX-50 index was down 1.47 points to 3126.93, having yesterday closed down 3.1 points.

Among shares falling early, Cavalier Corp was down 4c to 241, Freightways fell 4c to 310, Contact Energy slipped 2c to 588, and Trustpower was down 2c to 745.

Shares rising early included Ebos Group, up 5c to 595 on low volume, NZ Refining Co up 5c to 515, Fletcher Building up 2c to 792, and The Warehouse up 2c to 410. Telecom was unchanged on 256.

Allied Farmers dropped 4c to 31, following a 2c rise yesterday after it announced a proposal to buy the assets of Hanover Finance and Hanover subsidiary United Finance.

In the United States, investors turned cautious as an unexpected drop in home construction and disappointing forecasts from technology companies raised concerns about the economy's recovery.

The modest drop came a day after stocks closed at 13-month highs.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed provisionally down 0.1 percent at 10,426.31, the S&P 500 index edged down 0.1 percent at 1109.80, and the Nasdaq composite index was down 0.5 percent at 2193.14.