Fletcher Building leads market higher

The New Zealand sharemarket started the week robustly after the US market rallied on Friday and the Australian market rose more than a per cent.

The benchmark NZX-50 index closed up 17.472 points, or 0.553 per cent, at 3178.469 after initially opening up around 5.610 points.

"It rose on the back of firmer offshore markets. Our market really improved once the Australian market opened," said Grant Williamson, director at Hamilton, Hindin, Greene.

The Australian market was up 1.34 per cent as the New Zealand market closed. IG Markets said gains in the Australian market were broad-based, following the impressive Chinese numbers released on Saturday.

Fletcher Building rose 11c to 836. Shares of the country's largest building firm have been in demand since the magnitude 7.1 earthquake on the argument it would be involved in reconstruction of buildings and infrastructure.

Mr Williamson said 850 was the top end of a range in the last year so the stock may encounter resistance if it rises much more. Steel & Tube rose 3c to 253 in an ongoing rally since the earthquake.

Both Vector and Telecom recovered ground lost in a knee-jerk reaction to an announcement last week on the Government's ultra-fast broadband plans. Neither were first off the rank and uncertainty continues in the evolving story. Telecom rose 3c to 207 and Vector rose 2c to 211.

OceanaGold rose 15c to 480 as the company welcomed its inclusion in the ASX 200 index.

Contact Energy was unchanged at 574 after being up 5c to 579 in early trading, and Fisher & Paykel Appliances was up 1c to 54.

The Warehouse was up 5c to 375 following Friday's announcement of a $83.2 million net profit after tax for the year ended August 1, down 2.4 per cent from last year. After reducing $22.8m relating to government tax charges, the net profit after tax was down 21.6 per cent to $60.2m.

Air New Zealand rose 1c to 128 despite its plans with Virgin Blue for a trans-Tasman alliance being kicked back after Australia's competition regulator issued a draft decision to deny them permission.

In the red, Tower was down 3c at 184, Rakon was down 5c at 114 and Cavalier Carpets was down 2c at 274. Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was down 4c at 289 and ING Property was down 1c at 71.

Allied Farmers fell to 2.8c. On Friday, it disclosed an unaudited $77.58m loss after writing off goodwill for its collapsed finance company.

Ecoya was on a trading halt while a bookbuild is held to fund the acquisition of a skincare products business. Brokers said the company was raising new money very soon after listing in May and its shares last traded at 80c, which is below the $1 IPO price.

In US, The Dow and S&P 500 closed the week with their seventh gain in eight sessions in a turnaround period for stocks that has seen investors' worst fears about the economy start to dissipate.

The release of a strong US wholesale inventories report may have added fuel to the rally.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 47.53 points, or 0.46 per cent, to 10,462.77. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 5.37 points, or 0.49 per cent, to 1109.55. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 6.28 points, or 0.28 per cent, to 2242.48.

For the week, the Dow closed up 0.1 per cent, the S&P 500 gained 0.5 per cent, while the Nasdaq rose 0.4 per cent.

- NZPA