Sharemarket: NZX-50 rises fractionally

File photo / NZH

New Zealand's sharemarket rose only fractionally today, despite reaching a two-year high during intra-day trading that took the benchmark NZX-50 index to 3338.04 points at midday.

Though this was the highest level seen by local investors since the early days of the global recession in September 2008, the NZX-50 finished up only 0.05 per cent on yesterday.

A gain of 1.721 points left the index at 3326.714, meaning it shed almost 12 points of the gains in early trading.

Much of that lift came from cornerstone stock Telecom, up 4c early in the day to 221 as 3.5 million of its shares changed hands, over a quarter of the day's volume.

There were 11 million shares traded, valued at $35.3 million. A lot of Fletcher Building shares - nearly 1.4m - were also sold, but they fell 9c to 770, after gaining 13c on Wednesday.

Another gainer on Wednesday, Fisher and Paykel Health, also fell today, dropping 5c to 314.

Sky City added 3c on top of yesterday's 6c gain, taking its share price to 333. And Pyne Gould rose 1c to 38c in advance of its Marac finance unit being rolled in with the Canterbury and Southern Cross building societies to seek a banking licence later this year.

Trustpower lifted 5c in early trade, but finished the day back where it started, at 735 as fewer than 7000 shares were traded. The Warehouse also finished at par, 342, having yesterday fallen 8c after reporting sales for the two months ended January 2 were down 2.7 per cent compared to the same period last year. Nearly 400,000 shares were sold today, some of them at prices 3c higher than the eventual close.

Another retailer, Hallenstein Glasson, rose 5c to 415, but Briscoe Group also finished where it started, at 135, after attracting higher prices during early trading.

Air New Zealand lifted 2c, to 153, and Xero rose 9c to 299.

In the United States, stocks ended higher after data showed the creation of three times as many private sector jobs as expected in December.

The Dow gained 31.71 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 11,722.8. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 6.36, or 0.5 per cent, to 1,276.56. The Nasdaq rose 20.95, or 0.8 per cent, to 2702.20.

Financial companies led the 10 groups that make up the S&P index with a 1.2 per cent gain. Utilities did the worst, losing 0.6 per cent.

Across the Tasman, Australian stocks made a small gain in the face of uncertainty over the damage caused by the Queensland floods.

At the close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 10.1 points, or 0.2 per cent, at 4725, while the broader All Ordinaries index gained 10.2 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 4831.3.

Among the sectors, industrials rose 0.8 per cent, materials and financials gained 0.2 per cent and energy shares rose 0.5 per cent.

- NZPA