NZ sharemarket lifts while other markets ease

The New Zealand sharemarket outperformed many markets in Asia today as selected leading shares pushed higher.

Contact Energy rose 21c to 602 after selling the small shortfall in its rights issue at a premium to the issue price.

The benchmark NZX-50 index closed up 19.778 points, or 0.564 percent, at 3525.39. Regional markets were mostly lower following the late sell off on Wall Street on cautious comments from Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke.

"The market had pretty mixed leads from offshore but performed pretty well on the back of companies like Telecom," said James Smalley at Hamilton, Hindin, Greene.

Telecom rose 5.5c to 235.5 in an ongoing positive reaction to its success in participating in the Government's ultrafast broadband plans. The company announced the sale of the software unit of its Gen-i business today.

Guinness Peat Group eased 0.5c to 83.5 as it updated shareholders at the annual meeting on its windup strategy. It was optimistic about Turners and Growers, which rose 6c to 169.

Argosy Property Trust rose 2c to 85 after major investors got together to try to stop a $32.5 million payment to internalise its management.

Freightways rose 12c to 347, while Air NZ eased 2c to 102. The airline has delayed plans to sell the technology for its "cuddle class" seats to other airlines because of strong demand, chief executive Rob Fyfe said in an interview with Bloomberg in Singapore.

Heartland NZ fell 3c to 73 and Pyne Gould Corp was unchanged at 40. Hearthland is to enter the NZX-50 index on June 20 and PGC will exit it.

OceanaGold eased 11c to 302 and Scott Technology eased 5c to 155. Restaurant Brands eased 9c to 262 and Sanford eased 11c to 540 but they were both trading with a dividend no longer payable today.

Fletcher Building eased 8c to 875 and Steel & Tube eased 1c to 265. NZ Refining eased 5c to 415 after releasing operating statistics.

Rakon eased 2c to 105 and Cavalier Carpets eased 5c to 370.

Investors also noted with interest speculation that there could be a partial float of the Trade Me business by owner Fairfax Media. Analysts believed a decision had not yet been made but see the strategy as sound.

Investor demand was likely to be good given the stellar performance of recent internet company listings globally but as always price and growth strategy would be important to investors.

In the United States, stocks extended a losing streak for a fifth day after Bernanke acknowledged a slowdown in the economy, but offered no suggestion the central bank is considering any further monetary stimulus to support growth.

The market, which started off on a positive note after the S&P 500 hit a two-month low in the previous session, reversed course to turn negative after Mr Bernanke started speaking.

The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 0.2 percent to end at 12,070.81, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index declined 0.1 percent to 1284.94, and the Nasdaq Composite Index shed 0.04 percent to finish at 2701.56.