NZ market posts another day of growth

The New Zealand sharemarket had another good day, fuelled in part by fast food and coffee from Restaurant Brands.

The benchmark NZSX-50 index, which gained 31.1 points yesterday, piled on another 21 points, or 0.674 per cent, to 3146.6 points today.

The day saw 41.7 million stocks traded worth $92.4 million

It was not a bad performance from local equities considering mixed offshore markets, said Grant Williamson, from Hamilton, Hindin, Greene.

The highlight was Restaurant brands, the operator of the New Zealand outlets of KFC, Pizza Hut and Starbucks Coffee, announcing another profit upgrade yesterday. It was today up 16c, or nearly 11 per cent, to 162, its highest value in four years.

"That was pretty spectacular really, we don't see those sort of moves on the local market too often."

The local market had been a bit flat over recent times but some individual stocks were performing well, Mr Williamson said.

"We had maybe underperformed against overseas markets in recent time and maybe we are just playing a bit of catch up."

Around 30 stocks in the top 50 were in the black today. Telecom was up 1c to 247 and The Warehouse up 2c to 418.

Fletcher Building improved on new dwelling data, gaining 5c to 789, Methven was up 6c to 166 and Ryman Healthcare made 7c up to 206.

Fisher & Paykel Appliances bounced back 2c to 345, Air NZ rose 4c to 125 and Tourism Holdings was up 2c to 70.

Goodman Fielder gained 5c to 200, Sky City was up 8c , or 2.34 per cent, to 350 and NZ Farming Systems Uruguay gained 1c to 46.

Stocks losing ground were Auckland Airport, down 1c to 185, Sanford, down 6c to 485 and Kiwi Income Property Trust, down 4c to 99.

Australian stocks rose slightly on Tuesday, after the central bank raised rates by 25 basis points, as expected, saying its third consecutive hike would help sustain economic growth.

The S&P/ASX 200 index was up 6.75 points at 4,708.1 at 5.20pm (NZT).

The US stock market closed out its best month since the summer, posting big gains for November even as investors worried about the strength of the holiday shopping season.

Despite a tepid finish, the Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500 index rose more than 5 per cent in November, their biggest monthly advance since July.

The Dow rose 34.92, or 0.3 per cent, to 10,344.84. The broader S&P 500 index rose 4.14, or 0.4 per cent, to 1095.63, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 6.16, or 0.3 per cent, to 2144.60.

Three stocks rose for every two that fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to a moderate 1.3 billion shares.

- NZPA