KEY POINTS:
The sharemarket jumped more than 2 per cent today, but was unable to sustain the massive relief rally seen on Wall Street after the US government bailout of Citigroup.
Wall Street capped its best two-day run since the aftermath of the 1987 stock market crash, on the back of the decision to rescue the US banking giant and after President-elect Barack Obama named his team of economic advisers.
"It's good while it lasts, but the market's still working through issues obviously," said Don Lewthwaite of First NZ Capital.
"Strong across the board with few exceptions, notably Nuplex with their profit downgrade - that was the black mark on the day."
The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed up 59.4 points, or 2.3 per cent, at 2634.9, after easing 2.6 points yesterday. Turnover totalled $97.8 million.
Top stock Telecom was up 8c at 228, Fletcher Building gained 14c to 568, and Contact Energy rose 33c to 662.
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was up 3c at 301, F&P Appliances was up 13c at 137, Auckland Airport rose 4c to 170, Sky City was up 8c at 305, and Sky TV gained 4c to 319.
Resins and chemicals company Nuplex Industries slid 68c to 382 after predicting earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation would fall this year to $110m from $121.8m.
Pumpkin Patch jumped 14c to 105 after yesterday's news that the children's clothing company would buy its own shares back. The company's shares traded down to 79c on Friday, having peaked at 495 in January last year.
"The directors have given a signal that they think their shares are trading too cheap and they think the best use of the company's money is to buy them back. They're on the inside so the market's obviously taken that as a positive," Mr Lewthwaite said.
However, retail remained a very challenging sector globally.
Other strong gains included NZ Oil and Gas, up 13c at 134, Tower, up 7c at 150, PGG Wrightson, up 12c at 167, and Sanford, 15c higher at 540.
Air New Zealand was up 3c at 87 despite a decline in passenger demand last month.
Among dual-listed stocks, ANZ was up 166 at 1669, Westpac surged 115 to 1990, AMP was up 9c at 634, and Lion Nathan jumped 45c to 1095.
Australia's S&P/ASX-200 Index was up 4.6 per cent at 3580.
Earlier, the Dow Jones industrial closed up 4.93 per cent, the Standard & Poor's 500 rose 6.47 per cent, and the Nasdaq Composite Index leaped 6.33 per cent.
The Dow has risen 11.8 per cent, and the S&P has gained 13.2 per cent in the last two days.
- NZPA
