NZ stocks: Market ends losing streak

The sharemarket today broke a five-day losing streak in early trading as investors preferred to shrug off local banks hiking fixed rates and instead focus on the US scene.

The benchmark NZX-50 index, which has dropped 3.5 per cent since Wednesday last week, was up 16.8 points to 3548.74 at 10.15am.

Stocks on Wall Street rallied 2 per cent in their second best performance of the year, as Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke's comments on inflation suggested the central bank may be close to ending two years of interest-rate increases.

That set off a burst of buying that resulted in a single-session record number of stocks advancing on the New York Stock Exchange and drove the S&P 500 back up into positive territory for the year.

On the local scene, ANZ National Bank confirmed a lift in two-year fixed rate mortgages by 0.31 of a percentage point.

Other banks were expected to follow. However, brokers said a further shrinkage of household spending had been factored in during the five-day bear run.

Leading the rises, Contact Energy was up 8c to 715 and Fletcher Building 7c to 878. Market leader Telecom had a muted rise of 2c to 406.

Stocks were up across the board, with only Mainfreight, down 2c to 568, Sanford, down 4c to 515 and Vector, down 1c to 250, off among the top 50.

Of the small stocks, Allied Workforce was strongest with a 4c to 178.

- NZPA