Meridian advanced 1.2 per cent to $2.195. Genesis gained 0.5 per cent to $2.25. Mighty River Power climbed 0.9 per cent to $3.45. Spark New Zealand rose 0.6 per cent to $3.29.
"There is the expectation, dare I say it, but the old interest rate argument again, that they're not going up any time soon," said Grant Williamson, director at Hamilton Hindin Greene.
Diligent was the worst performer on the day, dropping 2.8 per cent to $5.95. The governance software developer has lifted annual profit 43 per cent to US$8.59 million and reported sales at the top end of guidance as it continued to add new customers and announced plans to invest more heavily in research and development in the coming year.
"The comments around the stock were reasonably positive, but the stock has had a reasonable run-up leading into its result, so it might be a case of people buying ahead of the announcement, and then profit takers coming out following the result," Williamson said.
Diligent is one of the last companies to report its financial statements this earnings season.
All up Williamson said results had been "mixed", with the larger stocks disappointing, while mid-tier stocks improved.
"Some of our blue-chip stocks didn't quite fire on all cylinders and missed the mark a wee bit with investors, including Spark, Fletcher Building and Contact Energy, although that was more a one-off reaction to no higher dividend," Williamson said. "Our second-line companies, they probably performed better, had better growth than what our large companies had, including the likes of Ebos, Nuplex - stocks like that did perform extremely well."
Ebos which is heading for record profit this year, advanced 0.3 per cent to $10.35. Nuplex fell 0.3 per cent to $3.22.
Fletcher, the construction and building supplies firm, fell 0.1 per cent to $8.63. Contact dropped 1.5 per cent to $6.09.
