Sharemarket gets over Shanghai jitters to open positively

By NZPA

Thursday 31st May 2007

The sharemarket took comfort from Wall Street's record run when it opened positively today, getting over yesterday's jitters caused by a fresh dive on the Shanghai sharemarket.

The NZSX-50 benchmark index was up 10.74 points at 10.20am to 4290.37, having lost 0.7% yesterday when Shanghai slumped 6%.

Telecom was up 2c to $4.84 today despite news it may have to spend $400m to switch its mobile network to the same system as rival Vodafone.

No 2 stock Fletcher Building was up 4c to $12.83.

Mainfreight, yesterday's standout performer following its solid result, was up another 10c to $7.35.

Sanford continued its good run, rising 5c to $4.55 and Ryman Healthcare was up 6c to $2.64.

TrustPower was down 10c to $8.25 as wholesale power prices continued to ease thanks to good inflows to hydro lakes.

Insurer and fund manager Tower was down 6c to $2.30.

NZX was unchanged on $11.00 after announcing it was getting into the news game through the purchase of internet media company NewsRoom.

NZ Experience fell 3c to 29c and Postie Plus was down 3c to 82c.

In the US, the Standard & Poor's 500 closed at its first record high in seven years after minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest meeting reassured investors about the economy's health.

Amid a broad-based rally in the US stock market, the Dow industrials set another record high, too, bringing a resounding end to a global equities sell-off sparked by a plunge in China's benchmark share index.

The Nasdaq notched its highest finish in more than six years. On Wall Street, this was the third day of gains for all three major US stock indexes.

The Dow Jones industrial average shot up 111.74 points, or 0.83%, to close at 13,633.08, just off a lifetime high of 13,636.09 set earlier in the session.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index jumped 12.12 points, or 0.80%, to finish at a record 1,530.23. At this level, the S&P 500 closed above its previous record of 1,527.46, which was set on March 24, 2000, in the waning days of the dot-com stock bubble. The Nasdaq Composite Index ended up 20.53 points, or 0.80%, at 2,592.59.

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