The New Zealand sharemarket started the week with a lift, after positive economic data buoyed international markets overnight Friday.By 10.15am today the benchmark NZX-50 index was up 9.76 points to 3311.42, having ended last week with a 14.2-point gain
The New Zealand sharemarket started the week with a lift, after positive economic data buoyed international markets overnight Friday.
By 10.15am today the benchmark NZX-50 index was up 9.76 points to 3311.42, having ended last week with a 14.2-point gain on Friday.
Among leading shares, Contact Energy was up 5c to 627, Telecom lifted 1c to 220 and Fletcher Building also gained 1c, to 845.
Auckland Airport was up 1c to 202, after reporting a 3.9 percent rise in international passenger volumes last month compared to a year earlier. Nuplex lifted 3c to 339, Xero gained 3c to 160, and NZX picked up 2c to 182.
Retailer Kirkcaldie&Stains was up 5c to 290, after reporting on Friday that first half net profit rose 50.4 percent to $725,000, despite a 4.2 percent fall in revenues to $21.96 million.
Trustpower fell 5c to 735, and fishing company Sanford was down 3c to 442.
Movements in dual-listed shares included a 90c increase by ANZ to 3300, while Telstra dipped 4c to 412.
In the United States, stocks rose to a 19-month high on Friday as Merck eased concerns about the impact of healthcare reform, saying its costs will be relatively low, while energy shares lifted the broad market after oil rose 1.7 percent to above $US85 a barrel on positive economic data.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.6 percent to 11,204.28, the Standard&Poor's 500 Index rose 0.7 percent to 1217.28, and the Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.4 percent to 2530.15.
For the week, the S&P 500 was up 2.1 percent, the Dow gained 1.7 percent and the Nasdaq rose 2 percent. It was the eighth straight week of gains for the Dow and Nasdaq, while the S&P has gained in seven of the past eight weeks.
