KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket lifted as the day went on from a flat start, even though there was no lead from Wall Street where US markets were closed for Thanksgiving.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed up 42.216 points, or 1.582 per cent, at 2710.96. Volume was worth $85.29 million. There were 47 rises and 31 falls.
The market has now risen for five consecutive days, and brokers have said the good thing about that is the reduction in volatility.
"It took us half the day to get up five points then we zoomed up," said Stephen Wright at ASB Securities.
Telecom, which goes ex-dividend on Monday, was up 11c at 249.
Fletcher Building was down 12c to 558, in a week in which it had some bad press on the topic of a past acquisition and pulled the plug on a planned acquisition.
Contact Energy was down 5c to 675.
Air NZ gained 3c to 89 in the rising market. The company is investigating the crash of one of its aircraft while being tested in Europe.
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was up 7c to 307, Mainfreight gained 30c to 485, Nuplex was up 30c to 375, and Infratil up 7c to 170.
Among losers, Michael Hill was down 2c to 58 and Pike River Coal was down 1c to 100. APN News was down 9c at 310.
Cavalier was down 5c to 210.
AMP rose 30 to 660 and ANZ rose 45 to 1715.
The Warehouse rose 11 to 363 after telling shareholders it wanted to open 15 new stores in the next five years.
While there was no lead from the US, European shares closed higher, led by commodities and financials, although volumes were light due to Thanksgiving.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares rose 2.6 per cent. The index has risen 12 per cent this week, but has fallen more than 43 per cent so far this year.
Asian markets were up today and the Australian market was up about 3 per cent in afternoon trading.
- NZPA
