KEY POINTS:
It was a day of modest gains on the New Zealand share market in the wake of news of the US Federal Reserve's surprisingly big interest-rate cut.
The benchmark NZX-50 index closed up 0.846 points, or 0.031 per cent, at 2695.93, having been higher than that during the
day.
Volume was worth $102.73 million but brokers said it was boosted by good volume in SkyCity and large volume in NZ Medical Properties Trust. Overall there were 41 rises and 33 falls.
SkyCity rose 4c, or 1.42 per cent, to 286 and Stephen Wright at ASB said the turnover was mostly out of Australia.
ING Medical Properties Trust fell 3c to 106 and brokers said there was a big crossing in the stock, indicating a placement of shares. ING Property Trust Investments Ltd filed a substantial security holder notice today indicating it had sold an 11.92 per cent stake.
Mr Wright said the market was higher because Wall Street had risen. The market was slowly improving.
However, the rise in the New Zealand dollar above US58c today on the back of a bigger than expected cut in US interest rates put some pressure on export stocks.
Fisher & Paykel Appliances was down 1c to 127 and Sanford was down 5c to 510.
SkyTV, which has been on a run higher, retreated 7c to 388 today.
Among the leaders Telecom eased 5c to 235 on a day in which Telstra rise 23c to 438.
Fletcher Building rose 14c to 607 and Contact rose 8c to 693.
Air NZ eased 2c to 86 and Auckland Airport rose 1c to 167.
Infratil rose 1c to 170.
Port of Tauranga rose 15c to 630, NorthPort rose 5c to 275 and Freightways was unchanged at 295.
Steel & Tube rose 18c to 300 and Lion Nathan rose 33c to 983.
PGG Wrightson eased 7c to 153 and ANZ eased 142 to 1608.
Wall Street rallied in a move described as a standing ovation for the Federal Reserve's slashing of borrowing costs to a record low, even zero, and pledging more unconventional steps to fight the deepest recession in generations.
US stocks were up modestly all day on optimism that the Fed, at its last meeting of 2008, might take dramatic measures to combat the credit crisis and global economic slowdown. But the rally caught fire right after the central bank released its statement in mid-afternoon, pushing the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 index to its highest closing level since November 10 and driving each of the major US stock indexes to their best one-day performance for the month.
"The rate cut was definitely more than a lot of people were expecting and that's really helping the market here," said Jocelynn Drake, market analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 359.61 points, or 4.20 per cent, to 8924.14. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index jumped 44.61 points, or 5.14 per cent, to 913.18. The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 81.55 points, or 5.41 per cent, to 1589.89.
- NZPA
