Major stocks pull NZ shares higher

The NZX-50 had a quiet day today, pulled higher by reasonably-well performing major stocks.

"The market at this time of year is particularly quiet," Stephen Walker, Goldman Sach JBWere head of funds management, said.

Reasonable performances by Telecom and Fletcher Building led to the Stock Exchange index gaining 18 points, NZIER figures released today trumpeting the exit from recession merely confirmed what the market had known for some time.

It had been a tough year for fund managers, though many were now making decent returns as the year drew to a close, Mr Walker said.

Telecom closed at 238, gaining 3c. Fletcher Building was up 5c at 765. Contact Energy stayed at 570 and SkyCity at 327.

Fishers & Paykel Healthcare gained 9c to 333, Sky TV was up 10c to 495 and Nuplex gained 5c to 257.

Other gainers were New Zealand Oil and Gas, up 3c 3c to 166, Port of Auckland 6c to 705, Infratil 1c to 164 and Restaurant Brands 2c to 160.

Fallers were Mainfreight, down 1c to 562, the Warehouse 3c to 402, Auckland Airport 1c to 189, Ryman Healthcare 1c to 206, and Goodman Fielder 2c to 191. Sanford dropped 6c to 465 with light volumes of shares traded, Guinness Peat Group fell 1c to 81 and Fisher & Paykel Appliances also fell 1c to 57.

The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed up 0.591 per cent, or 18.317 points, at 3117.114. Turnover was 30,273,312 shares, worth $63,285,525.99. There were 37 rises and 33 falls among the 113 stocks traded

Overseas, markets seems to be trading with a "bring on Christmas" mentality, Cameron Peacock, market analyst for Melbourne-based IG Markets, said.

Despite the generally positive leads overnight, Across Asia, all regional indexes are lower.

"Concerns over business sentiment after yesterday's uninspiring tankan survey and a stronger yen are clearly hindering the Japanese market and inturn weighing on the region. The Hang Seng is the region's worst performing market, down 0.9 per cent, while the Shanghai Composite is lower by 0.7 per cent. The Kospi and the Nikkei 225 are seeing more modest losses, both weaker by 0.2 per cent."

In afternoon trade the ASX 200 was higher by 0.5 per cent at 4675 but well off its intraday high of 4691.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.3 per cent to end unofficially at 10,501.05, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 0.7 per cent to finish unofficially at 1114.11, and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 1 per cent to close unofficially at 2212.10.

- NZPA