KEY POINTS:
The top three stocks recovered from yesterday's losses, helping push the sharemarket up 1 per cent today.
The NZSX-50 benchmark index closed up 42.96 points at 3657.2, on turnover totalling $140 million.
"An extremely good end to the week, and closing like that at the end of the
week, Monday should be reasonably positive," said Hamilton Hindin Greene partner Grant Williamson.
"The New Zealand dollar still seems to be under quite a bit of pressure, so that will continue to create very good demand for the export and offshore exposed companies."
Telecom rebounded 12c, or 3 per cent, to 394, bargain hunters helped push Fletcher Building up 33c, or 4 per cent, to 838, and Contact Energy rose 12c, or 1 per cent, to 889.
"I think the highlight once again would have to be Fisher & Paykel Healthcare. A lot of investors who believe the New Zealand dollar will continue to weaken are continuing to buy that stock," Mr Williamson said.
F&P Healthcare rose 5c, or nearly 2 per cent, to 275 on more than eight million shares traded.
Among other blue chips, F&P Appliances fell 2c to 267, Auckland Airport gained 6c to 230, Sky City was up 2c at 395, Infratil was down 5c at 230, and Sky TV rose 4c to 460.
Rakon rose 4c to 345 after selling a business in the United Kingdom, Pumpkin Patch was up a cent at 175, PGG Wrightson rose a further 5c to 219, and Kiwi Income Property was up 2c at 129.
TrustPower, up 22c yesterday after reporting a 4 per cent fall in annual net profit, gained a further 13c to 855.
Freightways fell 2c to 343, Guinness Peat Group lost 3c to 182, its partial takeover target Tower fell 4c to 216, Hellaby Holdings lost 7c to 168, and Ryman Healthcare was down 4c at 170.
Clothing retailer Hallenstein Glasson slid 15c to 335 after issuing a profit warning yesterday, while The Warehouse was flat at 525.
Air New Zealand was unchanged at 118 after announcing its latest airfare increases yesterday.
Dominion Finance, under pressure lately after reporting very low reinvestment rates, was up 2c to 83c.
Among dual-listed stocks, ANZ rose 64c to 2840, Westpac was up 43c to 3075, AMP gained at cent to 971, and Lion Nathan was down a cent at 1020.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index was up 0.7 per cent at 5934, while Japan's Nikkei was flat.
Earlier on Wall Street, United States stocks rose in light trading, pushing the S&P 500 index to its highest close since January, as a pullback in oil prices eased concerns about inflation.
- NZPA
