KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket closed off its lows today, ending roughly in line with other markets in the region.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index rose 23.44 points to 4107.60, on turnover valued at $97.4 million.
"Very strong offshore markets last night, in particular the Dow Jones, has created some buying in the local markets," Grant Williamson, of Hamilton Hindin Greene, said.
In the United States overnight, the Nasdaq had its best day in more than a year as investors snapped up beaten down technology shares, while the energy sector benefited from a surge in oil prices.
While the New Zealand market added 0.5 per cent, there was some late selling with prices drifting off during the afternoon.
"People are still extremely nervous, the volatility is still very high, and there's a lot of investors thinking, 'let's just hop out and sit on the sidelines for a while'," Mr Williamson said.
Top stock Telecom was down a cent at 421, having lifted 7c yesterday following a draft Commerce Commission ruling on the price of "unbundled" bitstream services.
Second-ranked Fletcher Building was up 11c at 1180, Contact Energy was down 6c at 927, Fisher & Paykel Appliances rose a cent to 373, F&P Healthcare was up 3c at 340, and Auckland Airport was down 3c at 305.
Casino operator Sky City was up 2c at 463.
"That's despite some confusion over its accounts and a number of analysts wondering how they'd managed to cost-cut their expenses so quickly after announcing it, so still a few questions to be answered by the Sky City board," Mr Williamson said.
Port of Tauranga jumped 22c to 710 after announcing a 22 per cent rise in annual net profit to $38m, despite losing most of the North Island business of shipping giant Maersk Line during the year.
Small cap finance company Dominion Finance lost 4c, or 2.5 per cent, to 156 with the news today that Five Star Consumer Finance is in receivership. That makes it the seventh company to collapse in 16 months, and the third in just over a week.
Infratil was up 4c at 291, Tower gained 6c to 224, Sky TV was up 6c at 561, and Air New Zealand was up 2c at 201.
Nuplex rose 7c to 691, having reported a 58 per cent fall in annual profit last week.
NZX fell 15c to 975, Freightways was off 5c at 390, Sanford lost 5c to 440, and Mainfreight was down a cent at 709.
Among dual-listed stocks, Westpac rose 37c to 3100, ANZ gained 25c to 3410, AMP was up 11c at 1201, and Lion Nathan was flat at 1050.
Australia's benchmark index was up 0.6 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei average added 0.9 per cent as higher oil prices pushed up energy stocks and trading firms.
- NZPA
