Wellington, July 7 NZPA - The New Zealand sharemarket posted modest gains today when most markets in Asia were weaker but volumes remained low.

The benchmark NZX-50 index closed up 9.336 points, or 0.316 percent, at 2961.737. Turnover was worth $61.99 million. There were 40 rises and 27 falls among the 98 stocks traded.

"The market is just struggling to keep its head above water and volumes are low," said Stuart Hardie, investment adviser at Craigs Investment Partners.

Hellaby Holdings rose 8c to 160 after saying its core debt has fallen 51 percent and it will either redeem in cash or roll over maturing notes. Mr Hardie said this was good news as shareholders would not be diluted.

"The positive thing from Hellaby's point of view is they have absolutely crushed their debt over the last three years. It is a big tick for them that they have got on top of this in really trying times," he said.

Nuplex rose 15c to 300 on speculation in the Australian media that it was in talks with Orica about a merger of business units but the shares closed up 2c at 287 after the company denied the speculation.

Telecom rose 3c to 186 and Fletcher Building rose 4c to 767.

The market also absorbed news of a weak result at Fonterra's online dairy product auction overnight, where average prices were down 13.7 percent from a month earlier. PGG Wrightson rose 1c to 50, New Zealand Farming Systems Uruguay was untraded and Allied Farmers fell 0.7c to 3.2.

Pike River Coal lifted 3c to 96 early but ended unchanged at 93.

In the United States, global equity gains were tempered late in the US trading day as a slowdown in growth in the US service sector weighed on sentiment. Worries about the possibility of a double-dip recession, which have been dogging financial markets, persisted.

"A lot of people got excited about how cheap things have gotten," said Stephen Massocca, managing director of Wedbush Morgan in San Francisco.

"Absolutely nobody believes in the rally, at least the ones we'll be seeing for now. The market sentiment is bearish and there is no doubt that the economic recovery is slowing down."

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.6 percent to 9743.62, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 0.5 percent to 1028.06, and the Nasdaq Composite Index edged higher by 0.1 percent to 2093.88.