Market posts gains as leaders rise

The New Zealand sharemarket got off to a firm start and ran on even though the NZ dollar rose through US74c today.

The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed up 27.749 points, or 0.883 per cent, at 3168.938 points.

Turnover was worth $137.67 million, with large volumes reported in Telstra, Telecom and Westpac.

There were 36 rises and 42 falls among the 114 stocks traded.

"The top five stocks were up today. If you've got the top five up there's a pretty good chance the market's going to be up," said Stuart Hardie, investment adviser at ABN Amro Craigs, Telecom rose 7c to 259, having fallen as low as 251 yesterday.

"It's finding some support and at these levels you are looking at a reasonably good dividend yield," Mr Hardie said.

He said it looked like investors were on the sidelines with equity markets having run higher this year but they were buying on dips.

Fletcher Building rose 8c to 830 after falling 18c yesterday.

Auckland Airport rose 2c to 194, Contact rose 9c to 598 and SkyCity rose 1c to 323.

The high NZ dollar did not dent exporters across the board as investors have become used to the trend. Delegats rose 5c to 238.

Dual-listed bank Westpac rose 110 to 3180 even though it lost a court case against the Inland Revenue Department, involving $961 million in back taxes.

Australian bank stocks surged today when strong employment data stunned investors.

NZ Refining rose 10c to 500 at a time of speculation about its ownership.

Tower fell 2c to 166 as it disclosed losses resulting from the Pacific tsunami last week.

Infratil fell 1c to 167 at a time when its NZ Bus business is in dispute with bus drivers in Auckland.

NZX fell 3c to 815, Nuplex fell 1c to 237 and Restaurant Brands fell 1c to 127.

Fisher and Paykel Healthcare fell 10c to 306 and Cavalier fell 5c to 240.

Pyne Gould rights closed at just 0.5c and the existing shares were unchanged at 42.

In the United States, investors booked profits after two days of strong gains and turned cautious at the approach of earnings season.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 0.1 per cent at 9725.58, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 0.3 per cent at 1057.58, and the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 0.3 per cent at 2110.33.

- NZPA