Trading started strongly on the New Zealand sharemarket after stocks in the United States logged their best one-day gain in about six weeks.The rise in US equities came after a bullish forecast from financial company State Street Corp fuelled optimism abo
Trading started strongly on the New Zealand sharemarket after stocks in the United States logged their best one-day gain in about six weeks.
The rise in US equities came after a bullish forecast from financial company State Street Corp fuelled optimism about the coming earnings season.
The forecast also helped the Standard&Poor's 500 Index break above a major resistance level at 1040, fueling more buying by those who had put on short positions.
Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was up 23.01 points to 2984.75, having yesterday gained 9.3 points.
Investment company Hellaby Holdings was up 7c to 167 early, on top of an 8c gain made yesterday after the company said its core debt has fallen 51 percent and it will either redeem in cash or roll over maturing notes, meaning shareholders will not be diluted.
Fletcher Building lifted 8c early to 775, Cavalier Corp was up 7c to 240, Contact Energy gained 6c to 590, Sky City was up 5c to 293, fishing company Sanford up 5c to 405, Freightways up 4c to 266, and Telecom up 2c to 188.
Nuplex lifted 5c to 292, having ended up 2c yesterday during a day when it lifted 15c at one point on speculation in the Australian media it was in talks with Orica about a merger of business units. Both companies denied the speculation.
In the US, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 2.8 percent to 10,018.28, the Standard&Poor's 500 Index gained 3.1 percent to 1060.27, and the Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 3.1 percent to 2159.47.
