KEY POINTS:
The sharemarket continued its gradual rebound today after heavy losses at the start of the week, as blue chip stocks inched higher.
The NZSX-50 benchmark index closed up 7.8 points at 3947.6 on very light turnover of $88.7 million.
"Whereas the global markets have been quite volatile only
over the last month, the New Zealand market has been trending sideways to down over four or five months, so we are already a fair way through a down patch of the market," said Nigel Scott of ABN Amro Craigs.
"Investors are finding interest in some of the leading stocks at these levels."
Top-10 power company Contact Energy was up 4c at 810, having hit a session high of 824 after announcing it and 51 per cent owner, Origin Energy, had bought the NZ oil and gas assets of Swift Energy.
Contact also said it would close its New Plymouth power plant at a cost of $25 million, and the Government would use "call in" powers over resource consents for Contact's proposed Te Mihi geothermal plant.
Top stock Telecom was up 2c to 434, while Fletcher Building was up 9c at 1125.
The Warehouse, which fell 73c on Tuesday and regained 6c yesterday, was down 2c at 551 as concern about the prospect of takeover lingers.
"We have seen The Warehouse bungy for the last year and a half, and that's a continuation of it. People basically believe the long term prognosis is for continued corporate activity, that's why investors are there," Mr Scott said.
Another with the same issue, Sky City, was down 3c at 452. However, Auckland Airport, under a hostile partial takeover offer, was flat at 272.
Elsewhere on the top 10, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was up 3c at 333, F&P Appliances fell 2c to 338, Sky TV rose 9c to 576 and Vector lost 4c to 229.
NZ Farming Systems was up 6c at 146 after making a disappointing debut this week, with the shares issued at 150 falling to a low of 135. Key shareholder PGG Wrightson was up 9c at 203.
Fellow newcomer Diligent Board Member Services was steady at 80, having been issued at 100.
Among exporters, Rakon was up 10c at 380, Sanford rose 11c to 396, Pumpkin Patch was up a cent at 250 and Methven was down a cent at 204.
Turner's Auctions topped the rises with a gain of nearly 14 per cent, or 14c, to 115.
Dual-listed stocks were weaker, with ANZ down 45c at 3050, Westpac off 100c at 3120, and AMP down 26c at 1101.
Australia's benchmark index was down 0.4 per cent at 6194.2, and Japan's Nikkei average was up 0.4 per cent.
Earlier in the US, stocks seesawed near unchanged as gains in the energy sector helped offset concern about more fallout from the housing slump.
- NZPA