KEY POINTS:
Tough decisions by Fisher & Paykel Appliances announced yesterday sent its stock up 15 per cent and helped propel the broader market up.
Only a handful of stocks in the top 50 failed to fire yesterday, among them market leader Telecom, which fell 2c to $3.66. The company
last week outlined future plans which involved lower dividends and higher spending and not all investors are convinced.
No 2 stock Fletcher Building also failed to rise as did Auckland Airport, which was still suffering a hangover from the Government intervention to stymie the Canadian Pension Plan bid.
The NZX-50 index closed up 52.26 points, or 1.49 per cent, at 3568.93, with a strong lead supplied by Wall Street where stocks vaulted after Intel, JPMorgan and other blue chips reported reassuring earnings.
All three major US indexes ended up more than 2 per cent and Japan's Nikkei was even stronger when the local market closed. Local turnover was steady at just over $100 million.
F&P Appliances jumped 34c to $2.54 after it said it was closing plants in Dunedin, Brisbane and California and relocating manufacturing to cheaper locations in Thailand, Mexico and Italy.
"They are taking action to cut costs by offshoring," said ASB Securities broker Stephen Wright. "They weren't a beneficiary of the Free Trade Agreement and much of manufacturing is not ... so they just have to make these hard decisions and move."
He said there was a growing feeling in the US that the worst of the financial crisis is over.
Wright said that whether that sentiment had percolated into New Zealand was not clear as some finance companies were still in a precarious situation.
Contact Energy, up 29c in the previous two sessions, rose another 33c to $9.10 yesterday. Brokers said the stock was being propelled higher by news Contact was spending $250 million on two gas turbines, combined with high power prices, even though recent heavy rain has taken the edge off a looming power crisis.
Other big risers among the top 50 included: Freightways, 7c to $3.47, Guinness Peat Group, 3c to $1.71, Hallenstein Glasson, 9c to $3.69, Port of Tauranga, 17c to $6.48, TrustPower, 18c to $7.78, Warehouse, 10c to $5.85, Tower, 8c to $2.08, Pumpkin Patch, 8c to $1.88, Hellaby, 13c to $1.85, Nuplex, 17c to $6.24 and NZX 29c to $8.20.
There were also some sharp up moves among the minnows with Postie Plus up 4c to 50c, Broadway, 10c to 85c, and Mr Chips up 9c to $2. But finance company Dorchester Pacific fell 3c to 47c.
- NZPA