The New Zealand sharemarket closed strongly today, with significant rises among top stocks after solid economic data out today and gains on global markets.The benchmark NZX-50 index ended up 32.68 points, or 1%, at a three-month high of 3308.91.Telecom co
The New Zealand sharemarket closed strongly today, with significant rises among top stocks after solid economic data out today and gains on global markets.
The benchmark NZX-50 index ended up 32.68 points, or 1%, at a three-month high of 3308.91.
Telecom continued to recover from recent historic lows, closing up 8c, or 3.7%, at $2.24.
"It's a stock that's been under pressure for a number of weeks, so it seems to be a bit of a relief rally going on with some pretty good volume as well," said Hamilton Hindin Greene director Adrian Vance.
Fletcher Building rose 8c to $8.42, Auckland International Airport was up 3c at $2.00 on heavy volume, Sky City rose 6c to $3.26, and Sky TV was up 2c at $5.34.
Air New Zealand hit a two-year high today of $1.40 before closing at $1.38, up 7c or more than 5%.
The airline's stock jumped after favourable analyst reports ahead of the Rugby World Cup next year and amid a recovery in the world economy.
"It hasn't done a lot for a period of time, and I guess that's a combination of being an airline and also the fact that it's majority owned by the government," Mr Vance said.
Other big movers were Mainfreight, up 10c at $6.49, NZ Refining, down 18c at $3.80, Contact Energy, down 4c at $6.43, and seafood exporter Sanford, down 6c at $4.46.
There was mixed news from the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research's Quarterly Survey of Business Opinion today, which showed soaring business optimism in the March 2010 quarter, despite a shallower than expected recovery.
A seasonally adjusted net 36% of firms expected conditions to improve over the next six months, compared to 23% in the December quarter.
In other domestic news, world prices for New Zealand's commodity exports soared to a record high last month, with the ANZ Commodity Price Index posting its 13th consecutive monthly gain.
Across the Tasman, the S&P/ASX 200 Index was up 0.9% at 4950.5 after the Reserve Bank of Australia raised its official cash rate by 25 points. New Zealand's central bank is widely expected to raise its rate in June.
"There's some good economic data, but there's not a huge amount of confidence in terms of the overall New Zealand market and I think the lack of volatility and the lack of volume is tending to take investors to other markets," Mr Vance said.
