The benchmark NZX-50 rose as trading opened today, gaining two points to 3190.838, after a quiet day on the market yesterday as traders looked overseas and waiting for the reporting season to kick off mid-February.The index has been shedding points and tr
The benchmark NZX-50 rose as trading opened today, gaining two points to 3190.838, after a quiet day on the market yesterday as traders looked overseas and waiting for the reporting season to kick off mid-February.
The index has been shedding points and tracking steadily downwards since January 12, when it hit 3303.206.
Among leading shares at 10.20am, Telecom was up 1c to 240, Fletcher Building was up 3c to 805 and Contact was down 5c to 600.
"I think most investors locally are just buying time as we wait for the reporting season to kick-off in February. There is really a lack of domestic news to influence our prices at the moment," Hamilton, Hindin and Greene director Grant Williamson said.
Other shares showing early action were Auckland Airport, up 1c to 188, Fisher&Paykel Appliances , up 1c to 61, and Port Tauranga, up 5c to 715 with small volumes traded. The Warehouse was up 5c to 390 and Infratil was up 1c to 164.
Goodman Property fell 1c to 102, ING Medical fell 1c to 117 and AMP Office Trust fell 1c to 74.
On Wall Street, US stocks ended higher on Monday as signs that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke would win a US Senate vote for a second term relieved the market of some of the uncertainty that contributed to last week's decline.
Based on the latest available data, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 23.58 points, or 0.23 percent, at 10,196.56. The Standard&Poor's 500 Index was up 4.98 points, or 0.46 percent, at 1096.74. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 5.51 points, or 0.25 percent, at 2210.80.
