Fletcher Building helps propel NZ sharemarket higher

File photo / NZH

A rise in the price of Fletcher Building shares helped propel the New Zealand sharemarket higher today, while many markets in Asia were weak.

Fletcher Building closed up 20c at 923 and traded as high as 928. The stock has not been at these levels since March 2008.

"Fletchers are absolutely the star of the show," said Ross Cuthbert, an adviser at Craigs Investment Partners.

He said the company was experiencing demand from "index" investors and there was ongoing positive sentiment about the work the country's largest building firm was likely to get from rebuilding earthquake-hit Christchurch.

The benchmark NZX-50 index closed up 19.44 points, or 0.574 per cent, at 3408.049, having been up 8.44 points in early trading. Turnover was worth $103 million. There were 42 rises and 31 falls among the 107 stocks traded.

"Overall, it has been a good day with the New Zealand market up half a per cent when Asian markets other than China and the Philippines are down," Mr Cuthbert said.

Telecom rose 2.5c to 199 and Tower rose 4c to 180. OceanaGold rose 11c to 380, while New Zealand Refining was unchanged at 505.

Contact Energy rose 3c to 579, while TrustPower eased a cent to 719. The Electricity Authority launched an investigation into a spike in wholesale electricity market price at the weekend.

Pacific Edge Technology rose 18 per cent, or 3.5c, to 23 after the company said Australian healthcare provider Healthscope Ltd will market its test for detection of bladder cancer.

APN rose 9c to 210 and Ecoya rose 4c to 72. Smartpay was unchanged at 2.2 on a day it said it would seek to raise as much as $6 million from the sale of redeemable preference shares with a fixed dividend of 10 per cent.

Xero fell 6c to 244, Cavalier Carpets fell 5c to 355 and Auckland Airport fell 1c to 217. Ebos fell 4c to 750 and SkyTV fell 3c to 550.

The Warehouse rose 2c to 345 and Sanford rose 2c to 512. Kathmandu rose 3c to 225 and Goodman Fielder rose 3c to 166.

In the United States, stocks advanced for a third straight day on Friday (local time), with the three major stock indexes posting weekly gains after two straight weeks of declines brought on by the Japan earthquake, turmoil in the Arab world and a resurfacing of European debt problems.

"Overall, I keep looking at the pluses and minuses and this week has been spectacular with respect to everybody ignoring the minuses," said Kim Caughey Forrest, senior equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.4 per cent to 12,220.59, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 0.3 per cent to 1313.80, and the Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.2 per cent, to 2743.06.

For the week, the Dow gained 3.1 per cent, the S&P climbed 2.7 per cent and the Nasdaq advanced 3.8 per cent.

- NZPA