NZ stocks: Market posts gains across board

The New Zealand sharemarket posted solid gains across a broad range of shares today.

The leaders were among the stocks to rise, which helped the index along, on a day in which economic data had a higher profile than corporate news.

The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed up 30.852 points, or 1.126 percent, at 2770.658. Turnover was worth $99.7 million and it was boosted by large volume in ANZ and Westpac shares. There were 47 rises and 34 falls among the 112 stocks traded.

``Prices are getting a push along close to June 30,' said Stephen Wright at ASB Securities.

Telecom rose 9c to 267 but Mr Wright said an announcement of a re-jigging of outsourcing contracts for its Chorus unit had little impact

``It doesn't mean much for them because it is all contracted out,' he said.

News that the annual current account deficit had shrunk to $15.25 billion, amounting to 8.5 percent of gross domestic product, had little impact.

Attention is turning to March quarter gross domestic product data tomorrow. A 1 percent contraction is forecast by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand but the market consensus is for a slightly better performance of a 0.7 percent contraction.

Any suggestion that construction is holding up will be good for Fletcher Building, which today lifted 4c to 639 after dropping 6c yesterday.

SkyCity rose 12c to 274. Brokers suspect a institutional sell order, which took the stock to 262 yesterday, was completed.

Contact Energy was among the leaders to lose ground, ending down 7c at 571.

Smiths City eased 1c to 39 after announcing a 71.5 percent decline in annual profit and a cut in its dividend.

Ebos Group rose 3c to 510, The Warehouse rose 5c to 370, Pike River Coal rose 2c to 114 and TrustPower rose 9c to 770.

Westpac rose 40c to 2420 and Tower rose 2c to 171.

Fisher & Paykel Appliances rose 2c to 68.

The Dow fell for the fourth day on Wednesday and other indexes ended well off the day's highs on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve reiterated concerns about the economic outlook at the end of its policy meeting.

The Fed, as expected, left the benchmark fed funds rate at almost zero.

``The Fed is a little more downbeat than the market has been ... that they're emphasising the weakness is a touch disappointing to me and to the markets,' said Jim Awad, managing director at Zephyr Management in New York.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 23.05 points, or 0.28 percent, at 8299.86. But the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 5.84 points, or 0.65 percent, at 900.94. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 27.42 points, or 1.55 percent, at 1792.34.

- NZPA