KEY POINTS:
The sharemarket held on to some of its gains in a quietly positive session, as stocks rose across the board.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed up 9.55 points at 3367.3, having gained 4.5 points yesterday. Turnover was just $50.5 million.
"After the raft of company results in the last week or so, I think the market's just digesting that and all up they've been on balance reasonably in-line to positive - everyone's been quite negative on things, but (there's) a bit of a glimmer of hope," said Bryon Burke of ABN Amro Craigs.
A decline in oil prices was also a boost for sharemarkets.
Top stock Telecom rose 5c to 328, having hit its lowest in 15 years yesterday as it went ex-dividend.
Contact Energy rose 3c to 839, Fletcher Building was up 3c at 723, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rose 4c to 320, and F&P Appliances gained 3c to 180.
The main decliner among the top-10 was Sky City, down 11c at 361. Sky TV fell 4c to 489, Auckland Airport lost 2c to 209, and Infratil fell 2c to 231.
NZ Oil & Gas was down 4c at 156, after oil plunged as concerns eased about Hurricane Gustav's damage to the US oil sector.
NZ Refining was down 9c at 750, NZX lost 5c to 680, and Tourism Holdings fell 4c to 145.
Pike River Coal rose 2c to 197, The Warehouse was up 3c at 340, Freightway and Mainfreight both rose 3c, to 343 and 708 respectively, and Air New Zealand was up 2c at 114.
Among dual-listed stocks, ANZ was up 57c at 2082, Westpac rose 85c to 2960, AMP gained 38c to 910, and Lion Nathan fell 5c to 1085.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 0.1 per cent to 5110, and Japan's Nikkei share average fell 1.8 per cent.
US markets were closed overnight for the Labour Day holiday, while Europe's main stock markets closed lower with the London market undermined by comments from Britain's finance minister that the country faced a severe economic downturn.
- NZPA
