Firm start for NZ sharemarket

NZPA

Wednesday 20th July 2011

The New Zealand sharemarket rose in early trading, after stocks in the United States had their best day since March.

Shares in Fletcher Building were up 8c early to 812, after reaching a 5-1/2-month low 792 on the previous two days.

Key stock Telecom was up 1.5c to 255, after yesterday reaching an 18-month high 255.5 following an announcement that Mark Ratcliffe would stay on as head of the Chorus unit if it was spun off as a separate public company.

Shares in gold explorer Glass Earth Gold were unchanged on 62c after the company announced what it described as "significant" results from sampling at its Muirs prospect in Bay of Plenty. The company's shares have climbed from 25c last October.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was up 15.43 points to 3407.45, following a gain of 6.1 points yesterday which followed 10 successive trading days of decline.

Mainfreight added 5c early to 1015, Hallenstein Glasson gained 5c to 355, NZX was up 4c to 216 and Sky City lifted 4c to 358. Among the few stocks falling early, Vector was down 2c to 240.

In the US, strong corporate results and renewed hope for an agreement in Washington on thorny budget issues boosted investor confidence.

Quarterly numbers from technology bellwether International Business Machines Corp and Coca-Cola lifted technology and consumer shares in the first heavy week of second-quarter results.

The Nasdaq gained more than 2 percent, led by big-cap tech companies, including Apple, which hit a 52-week high during regular trading. After the market closed, the maker of iPhones and iPads reported revenue well above analysts' estimates, sending its shares up 6.7 percent to $US402.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 1.6 percent at 12,587.27, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 1.6 percent at 1326.71, and the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 2.2 percent at 2826.52.

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