The New Zealand sharemarket made modest gains in early trading as it continues to rally in the first days of the New Year.
The rally, which actually picked up momentum from New Year's Eve, has seen the benchmark NZSX-50 index add more than 110 points since the closeof trade on December 30, although that increase has been on light volumes.
The index is now at its highest level in nearly two months, after falling precipitously for much of the last third of 2008. Around 10.15am today the NZSX-50 was up 8.95 points to 2792.33, having yesterday gained 38.5 points.
Helping pull the market ahead today were 3c gains for several leading stocks with Telecom up to 238, Contact Energy to 756 and Fletcher Building to 592.
The Warehouse was up 4c to 362 as investors continued to look favourably on data published yesterday which showed the group's sales for the 10 weeks to January 4 were down 2.5 per cent from a year ago. That was a smaller fall than many had feared in tough economic times and helped the stock gain 10c yesterday.
Other stocks gaining early today included Sanford up 5c to 550, and Fisher & Paykel Appliances up 3c to 142.
Stocks falling early included NZX down 10c to 525, Port of Tauranga down 5c to 660 and Hallenstein Glasson down 5c to 215.
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In the United States, stocks gained on the increased likelihood of a government stimulus package after the release of minutes from the last Federal Reserve policy meeting painted a dismal picture of the US economy.
Preliminary closing figures put the Dow Jones industrial average up 0.7 per cent, the S&P 500 Index up 0.8 per cent, and the Nasdaq Composite Index up 1.5 per cent.
