KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket started the week strongly, after Saturday's New Zealand election produced a clear cut result for a National-led government.
Among leading stocks, Telecom was up 5c to 231 having hit a new intraday low of 219 on Friday. Contact Energy added 4c early to 745 and Fletcher Building was up 10c to 578.
Around 10.20am the benchmark NZSX-50 index was up 30.78 points, or 1.1 per cent, to 2822.42, having closed down 48.5 points on Friday.
Other early gainers today included retailer Hallenstein Glasson up 4c to 233, NZ Oil & Gas up 3c to 132, Pike River Coal up 5c to 120, Sky City up 8c to 320 and Tourism Holdings adding 9c to 99. Mainfreight lifted 15c, or 2.9 per cent, early to 530.
In the US, stocks rose on Friday as bargain hunters scooped up shares at multiyear lows after a big drop in the October payrolls was less dire than feared.
For the week, though, the indices closed lower after an extremely volatile run.
The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 2.9 per cent to 8943.81 on Friday. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index advanced 2.9 per cent to 930.99. The Nasdaq Composite Index shot up 2.4 per cent to 1647.40.
- NZPA