KEY POINTS:
When the US sharemarket leaps the New Zealand sharemarket leaps too and that is how it was today.
The Dow was up 3.4 per cent, S&P up 4 per cent, Nasdaq up 3.4 per cent on Friday on the belief that government intervention will save financial markets from their worst excesses.
In early trading today the benchmark NZSX-50 index was up 2.8 per cent. The index closed up 68.587 points, or 2.152 per cent, at 3255.715.
The question that began to prey on investors' minds as the day went on was: can Wall Street build on its gains or was Friday's move a short relief rally?
The Australian market was also up strongly today with a decision to ban short selling of shares adding to demand as investors with short positions rushed to buy shares.
"It is not such a big deal for the New Zealand market because we don't have a lot of shorts in the market anyway," said Grant Williamson, partner at Hamilton Hindin Greene.
The financial instruments that signal how Wall Street will perform tomorrow suggest it will be down but news can change the market's direction.
"Quite frankly no one is looking at things domestically. All eyes are on what's happening overseas," Mr Williamson said.
The blue chip stocks were the biggest gainers, having taken big hits when the market was down.
Telecom was up 10c to 282, while Fletcher Building surged 34c to 732.
Contact Energy was up 13c to 870 and Sky City was down 2c to 353.
The Warehouse was up 3c to 315, Sky TV was up 12c to 460.
Auckland Airport was up 4c to 206 and Air NZ was up 2c at 108. TrustPower rose 8c to 810 and Port of Tauranga was down 10c to 650. Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was down 7c at 309 and Fisher & Paykel Appliances was down 1c at 171.
Sanford rose 13 to 563.
There were 76 rises and 24 falls and turnover was worth $99.28 million.
- NZPA
