KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket staged a comeback today as bargain hunters appeared to hop off the sidelines.
After falling 1.7 per cent to a 30-month low on Friday, the New Zealand market shook off growing gloom on Wall St and closed up 0.1 per cent or 4.31 points to 3287.55 . Total turnover was a reasonable $100 million.
The Australian market followed suit, recovering from a fall of 1.2 per cent to a marginal decline of 0.3 per cent by late afternoon as bargain hunters sought out beaten down banking stocks.
First NZ Capital broker Barry Lindsay said it was a case of markets simply being oversold.
"Our recovery from the lows seen earlier today can be attributed to the same sort of recovery in Australia for the same reasons," he said.
One of the biggest recoveries was in Fletcher Building. Currently trading at about half its peak last October, Fletcher rose 17c to 658.
Another good performer was Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, up 8c to 222 .
"It's a high quality company and investors are mindful of the fact its earnings should grow if the New Zealand dollar falls," Mr Lindsay noted.
Its twin F&P Appliances closed down 4c to 191 after going ex-dividend by 9c, briefly touching an alltime low of 187.
The most noteworthy jump was New Zealand Refining, up 45c to 685, although it regained less than half of Friday's hefty loss which stemmed from several crossings.
Top stock Telecom helped prop up the index, up 4c to 377. Contact rose 8c to 823, Sky City edged up 5c to 325, and Sanford jumped 25c to 510 .
Other falls included Auckland Airport down 5c to 191, Westpac down 11c to 2599 and Michael Hill down 6c to 79c. Dominion Finance fell 4 per cent or 0.08c to 16.2c.
On Friday rising oil prices and warnings of more mortgage-related write-downs at banks reignited investors' fears of worse to come in the United States.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 220.40 points, or 1.83 per cent, at 11,842.69. For the week the Dow ended 3.8 per cent lower, the S&P fell 3.1 per cent and Nasdaq dropped 2 per cent.
- NZPA
