NZ underperforms offshore markets

The New Zealand sharemarket rose today but with less vigour than other markets.

The benchmark NZX-50 index rose 6.705 points, or 0.239 per cent, to 2808.22. Turnover was worth $92.93 million, of which $18.66m was in SkyCity.

There were 42 rises and 30 falls among the 117 stocks traded.

The bombings at Jakarta hotels today, which killed a New Zealander, affected sentiment in the currency but not the sharemarket.

The New Zealand sharemarket continued to underperform other markets and the possible downgrade of the country's credit rating by Fitch did not help.

"The possible downgrade for New Zealand is probably causing some selling in the marketplace and I think there is just a bit of profit-taking as well," said Grant Williamson, director at Hamilton, Hindin, Greene.

There was little corporate news and investors are continuing to wait for the local profit reporting season.

Features include a 10c rise in SkyCity to 278 and Fisher and Paykel Appliances rose 4c to 71 with $5m worth of shares traded.

Telecom rose 2c to 271 but Fletcher Building fell 1c to 683.

Contact fell 8c to 583.

Lion Nathan fell 22c to 1436 and the Warehouse fell 3c to 370,

Westpac fell 15c to 2510 and ANZ rose 15c to 2085.

Cavalier rose 10c to 195 and Infratil rose 3c to 174.

Mainfreight rose 2c to 410 and Freightways rose 2c to 287.

TrustPower was unchanged at 750, as was Air NZ on 91. Tower fell 1c to 170 and Auckland Airport fell 1c to 154.

In the US, stocks rallied for a fourth day on Thursday after JPMorgan's strong results fed growing optimism about the quarterly earnings season and technology shares rose in anticipation of more good news.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 95.61 points, or 1.11 per cent, to 8711.82.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 8.06 points, or 0.86 per cent, to finish at 940.74, and has climbed 7 per cent for the week so far.

- NZPA