NZ market starts week strong

The New Zealand sharemarket rose today care of strength in selected leading shares, including Fletcher Building.

The rise came even though the Australian market was weaker and after the US market dropped on Friday.

The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed up 19.924 points, or 0.64 per cent, at 3131.175. Turnover was worth $70 million. There were 32 rises and 39 falls among the 115 stocks traded.

Fletcher Building rose 4c to 829 even though the stock went ex a 14c a share dividend today.

"That's a good performance and I think the reason for it is the economic data we had last week was positive," said Ross Cuthbert, investment adviser at Craigs Investment Partners.

Investors continue to debate whether this and other markets can push on after rising so far this year.

"October, historically has been an awful month for stock markets," Mr Cuthbert said.

Many investors had been expecting a correction and it hadn't happened significantly yet. The chances of it happening in the next month were going up, he said.

Telecom rose 3c to 265, which also helped the index. ANZ rose 75 to 2875, on a day other banks were weak, in the wake of its announcement of the purchase of the rest of ING's Australasian business. The bank also announced a senior Australian appointment and that it opening its first rural branch in western China.

SkyCity rose 11c to 325, The Warehouse rose 12c to 412 and Fisher and Paykel Appliances rose 2c to 67.

Mowbray Collectables rose 10c to 100 after an associated company agreed to buy Sotheby's Australia.

Pyne Gould, which is raising capital, fell 11c to 70.

TrustPower rose 14c to 750, Port of Tauranga rose 10c to 645 and Telstra rose 8c to 398. Contact rose 2c to 573.

Nuplex eased 1c to 243, SkyTV fell 2c to 464, Cavalier fell 7c to 263, AMP Office fell 1c to 84.

Steel & Tube fell 16c to 313, GPG fell 2c to 87 and Hallenstein Glasson fell 2c to 303. Property for Industry fell 1c to 118.

APN fell 10c to 235.

Briscoe, NZ Experience, SouthPort and Lion Nathan also traded ex-dividend today. Lion Nathan fell 61 to 1375 and NZ Experience fell 6c to 25.

On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 42.25 points to 9665.19, the Nasdaq dropped 16.69 points to 2090.92, and the Standard & Poor's 500 index shed 6.40 points to 1044.38.

London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares closed 0.06 per cent higher at 5082.2 points, Frankfurt's DAX fell 0.42 per cent to 5581.41, and the CAC 40 index fell 0.51 per cent to 3739.14.

- NZPA