NZ sharemarket starts week strongly

The NZX-50 was up 0.76 per cent this morning. File photo / Paul Estcourt

The New Zealand sharemarket opened the new week strongly, after stocks in the United States ended higher on Friday, which raised some hopes the worst of the selling may be over.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was up 24.4 points, or 0.76 per cent, to 3240.9, after ending down 7.9 points on Friday.

Fletcher Building was up 11c to $7.73, Mainfreight added 10c to $10.15, Sky City lifted 5c to $3.45, Restaurant Brands gained 5c to $2.40, Ebos Group was up 5c to $6.70, Contact Energy lifted 5c to $5.00, Steel & Tube added 4c to $2.52, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare lifted 4c to $2.28, and Telecom added 3c to $2.48.

OceanaGold fell 9c to $2.56 early and Sky TV dropped 4c to $5.71.

The higher ending to last week for US stocks came after one of the most volatile weeks in memory.

Volume was much lighter than on any other day of the week and intraday swings were far less violent than in previous days. Both signs suggested a drop in investor anxiety.

Still, the market was down for the week and posted its worst three-week decline since March 2009 when it hit 12-year lows.

US markets got support on Friday from a 3.6 per cent rise in European shares. A short-selling ban on financial shares by France, Italy, Spain and Belgium eased fears over recent sharp declines.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 1.1 per cent to 11,269.02, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 0.5 per cent to 1178.81, and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.6 per cent to 2507.98.

For the week, the Dow fell 1.5 per cent and the Nasdaq lost 1 per cent. The S&P 500 fell on 11 of the past 15 days, dropping 12.4 per cent in three weeks.

- NZPA

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