KEY POINTS:
A number of large trades in top stocks helped spur the New Zealand sharemarket along on a broadly positive day.
The NZSX-50 benchmark index rose 0.9 per cent or 35.06 points to 3592.53. First NZ Securities broker Barry Lindsay noted the "quietly firm" recovery was in tandem with
offshore markets "but where our strength mirrors offshore, it's more muted."
Australia was up nearly 3 per cent in mid-afternoon trading on rallies by banking and energy stocks, and good earnings from two big US companies helped lift the Dow Jones by 1.8 per cent on Friday night.
Here, the day was characterised by a very large turnover - $316 million by value. At least two-thirds, however, could be attributed to large single trades in Telecom, Fletcher Building, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare and Sky City.
One broker said the buying seemed to be due to some form of "structured product," possibly an index or hedge fund.
Telecom rose 8c to 378 on turnover of 34 million shares worth $125 million. Mr Lindsay said just over 30 million of the shares were sold for $3.68 in one cross, constituting about 1.7 per cent of the company.
Similarly, Fletcher Building rose 6c to 841 on $109 million worth of shares. Most of the 13 million shares sold, about 11 million, were part of one trade.
Sky City was flat at 384 but saw turnover worth $25 million, and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was also unchanged at 275 on volume worth $17.7 million. In both cases, the majority of shares were due to a single cross.
Among other moves were Infratil, up 9c to 225, and Auckland Airport rose 2c to 219. Later in the day it was announced that interests associated with Lloyd Morrison, Infratil's manager, and the NZ Superannuation Fund had bought 11.6 million airport shares, lifting their stake to 104.2 million shares.
The Warehouse rose 25c to 605 in thin trading, NZOG rose 6c to 153, Contact was up 8c to 920, Air NZ lost 3c to 130 and Fisher & Paykel Appliances rose 5c to 256.
Dual-listed stocks received a boost from the Australian financial sector, which was buoyed by improved sentiment about the credit crisis.
ANZ, in particular, rose 110c to 2500 ahead of Wednesday's result, while Westpac rose 220c to 2800 and AMP lifted 25c to 960.
On Friday, the Dow Jones jumped 1.8 per cent following resilient results by major US companies Google and Caterpillar.
The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 228.87 points to end at 12,849.36, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 24.77 points, or 1.81 per cent, to 1,390.33. The Nasdaq Composite Index soared 61.14 points, or 2.61 per cent, to 2,402.97.
Citigroup also fuelled a rally as investors took comfort that the No 1 US bank is taking aggressive steps to resolve credit problems that led to its latest quarterly loss.
- NZPA