Sharemarket joins post-Shanghai recovery

By NZPA

Thursday 31st May 2007

The New Zealand sharemarket bounced back today, recovering from jitters caused by another dive on the Shanghai market.

The NZSX-50 benchmark index closed up 22.74 points, or 0.5%, at 4302.36, on turnover valued at $253.3 million. The index lost 0.7% yesterday when Shanghai shares slumped 6%.

"It's a very good day all round," Stephen Wright of ASB Securities said. "A lot of it is recovery, there's not a lot of actual news."

Top stock Telecom rose 3c to $4.85 after the Government said a new auction process of radio spectrum suitable for WiMax wireless broadband services will fast-track the rollout of the technology.

Second-ranked stock Fletcher Building jumped 19c, or 1.5%, to $12.98, having slipped from record highs as profit-takers moved in.

Fisher & Paykel Appliances rose 11c, or 2.9%, to a four-month high of $3.89.

"I put this down to again Australian influence, they seem to have certainly outperformed the rest of the market," Wright said.

F&P Healthcare was up a cent at $3.54.

Mainfreight gained 12c to $7.37 after saying yesterday that annual profit rose 91%, and it was concentrating on offshore business to keep growing.

Steel and Tube rose 5c to $4.70. Yesterday, figures showed consents issued to build new dwelling units appeared to be trending upwards after tailing off.

Exchange operator NZX was up 20c at $11.20 after announcing it would buy internet media company NewsRoom.

Infratil was down 5c at $6.45, its energy asset TrustPower also lost 5c, to $8.30, Vector was down 3c at $2.89, and Rakon fell 8c to $5.45.

Auckland Airport lost 3c to $2.68, while Air New Zealand gained 5c to $2.97, its highest since September 2003.

Port of Tauranga gained 12c to a record high of $7.00, and PGG Wrightson was up 7c at $1.87 after it said just before the market closed that it expected annual profit near the bottom of its forecast range.

A good day on the Australian market boosted dual-listed stocks, with ANZ up 30c at $32.70, Westpac up 80c at $30.00, AMP 24c higher at $11.45, APN News and Media up 28c at $6.95, and Lion Nathan up 12c at $10.20.

Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index was up 1.3% at 6326.6, while Japan's Nikkei average climbed more than 1.5%.

Earlier 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 the three US stock indexes.

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