KEY POINTS:
The sharemarket recovered some of its recent losses today as sentiment in Australia turned positive.
The NZSX-50 index closed up 0.92 per cent, or 31.9 points to 3502.88 on average turnover of $91m.
Macquarie Equities investment director Arthur Lim said the local sharemarket turned around "quite nicely" this afternoon in contrast to the overnight market in Europe and the US.
The turnaround locally was sparked from sentiment changes in Australia where QBE Insurance Group's A$7.45 billion ($8.8 billion) bid for Insurance Australia Group Ltd was rejected because it was too low, Mr Lim said.
Among the "reasonable movements" Telecom was up 6c to 368, retracing some of the loses it has suffered in the last few days.
There was renewed interest in stocks like Vector, up 2c to 195, and Auckland Airport, up 6c to 222.
Contact Energy, rose 11c to 859 after announcing it would instal two peaking units in its unused Stratford station.
No 2 stock, Fletcher Building rose 8c to 838.
Following the lead Pumpkin Patch was up 5c to 170, The Warehouse 5c to 570, Tower 3c to 200, Mainfreight 4c to 640, KiwiTrust 4c to 130 and Air NZ 1c to 132.
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was down 3c to 275, Port of Tauranga down 6c to 624, Steel and Tube 10c to 330 and SkyCity 1c to 389.
"Nothing really jumps out from the rises today...it's just a bit of ebb and flow in the market," Mr Lim said
"But the recover in the bigger cap stocks has more than offset weakness in the smaller cap stocks really. It's just an overall change in sentiment,"
In contrast, US stocks edged lower after an unexpected quarterly loss from Wachovia Corp dragged down the financial sector, overshadowing strong gains in energy companies as oil closed at a record.
The Australia market rose strongly, sparked by record high oil prices boosting heavyweight resource firms and IAG's rise on the takeover bid.
- NZPA
