NZ sharemarket lifts for sixth consecutive trading day

The New Zealand sharemarket extended its run of gains to a sixth consecutive trading day, though there was little corporate news to trade on until SkyTV revealed plans to buy the outside broadcast business it currently uses.

The benchmark NZX-50 index closed up 21.316 points, or 0.714 per cent, at 3005.249. The market is continuing to pull away from an 11-month low reached in intraday trading last Friday.

Turnover today was worth $71.36 million. There were 58 rises and 24 falls among the 111 stocks traded.

SkyTV rose 8c to 472 after saying it was buying Prime Media's New Zealand outside broadcast business for a net $13.5m.

Telecom rose 5c to 192 on a day in which it agreed to pay $1.6m in a settlement with the Commerce Commission over breaches of separation undertakings by its wholesale division.

"The market is slightly firmer in reaction to the offshore markets being relatively firm last night but we are lacking any stock specific news," said Grant Williamson, director at Hamilton, Hindin, Greene said.

Fletcher Building ended unchanged at 775 after earlier being weaker and Contact Energy ended down 3c at 585.

Postie Plus Group rose 2c to 32 on a day in which it was revealed that shareholder Jan Cameron has increased her stake to just under 20 per cent.

Investment company Hellaby Holdings continued its rise of recent days, gaining 5c to 175, on top of an 18c rise over the previous two days after the company said its core debt was down 51 per cent.

ING Medical Property rose 2c to 122 after reporting its portfolio has risen in value. AMP Office Trust rose 1c to 72, Kiwi Income Property Trust rose 1c to 93 and ING Property was unchanged at 68.

Other stocks to gain included Goodman Fielder up 7c to 169, Mainfreight 8c to 630, NZ Refining 10c to 310, Sanford 10c to 410, Ryman Healthcare 2c to 200 and Allied Farmers 0.5c to 3.5.

In the US, Wall Street rose for a third straight day as investors were encouraged to see jobless claims fall and a handful of large retailers report solid sales.

Stocks have regained their footing after a slew of poor data had raised fears of a double-dip recession. But low market volume suggested investors are still sceptical, and few expect to see a sustained rally.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 1.2 per cent at 10,138.99, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 0.9 per cent at 1070.25, and the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 0.7 per cent at 2175.40.

- NZPA