KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket bounded higher on healthy volume today but the Australian market had more bounce in it.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index was up 27.412 points to 3148.322. Rises outnumbered falls by 49 to 33 among the 108 stocks traded.
But the 0.878 per cent rise was less than the 3.18 per cent the Australian market was up at noon. Still, turnover in New Zealand was $163 million, which was well spread across a number of stocks.
There was $14m of Air New Zealand shares traded after the close in a crossing, which brokers said was equal to 1.3 per cent of the company.
There is a feeling that the market is oversold and sentiment is improving on the back of a decline in the oil price and faith that the US will support its financial sector.
Recoveries in financial stocks were a feature in many markets but in New Zealand the rise was driven by a few key leaders, particularly Fletcher Building and Contact Energy.
Contact rose 44c, or 5.77 per cent, to 806. The Takeovers Panel said today it was looking for an independent expert in the event a takeover of Contact's parent triggers a takeover of Contact. Contact also announced a windfarm large project today.
Fletcher Building rose 5c to 651 after the shares had halved in the past year to below 600.
A report today quoted Fletcher chief executive Jonathan Ling saying the company was under pressure to join the Australian stock exchange, with expectations such a move would result in the share price rising although that was not certain.
"A few stocks have probably been rather harshly treated and identified as oversold," said Barry Lindsay, research manager at First NZ Capital.
Mr Lindsay said bearish sentiment generally in the market had been almost overwhelming and it was never going to last forever.
The lower oil price could be a turning point for the market as it will take pressure off central banks considering interest rate policy.
Other stocks gaining today included Air New Zealand up 1c to 115, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare up 3c to 229, Hallenstein Glassons up 5c to 273 and Mainfreight up 2c to 642. Telecom was down 1c to 345 and Port of Tauranga was down 13c to 642.
SkyCity eased 4c to 292 and SkyTV rose 1c to 429.
The Warehouse rose 4c to 388.
Today's strength came after US equities ended last week mixed, with the Dow Jones industrial average rising 0.44 per cent on Friday (local time) to 11,496.57.
The biggest weekly drop ever in oil prices gave investors a renewed appetite for equities.
- NZPA
