Strong Tower leads NZ market higher

A strong performance by insurance and wealth management company Tower was the main feature of today's sharemarket.

Tower closed up 12c, or 6.6 per cent, at 194 and traded as high as 195 after reporting a 23.8 per cent rise in full-year net profit to $50.1 million. The share price is the highest since September 2008.

"Not only is the result good but they are also reasonably positive on the outlook," said Stephen Wright at ASB Securities.

The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed up 11.921 points, or 0.383 per cent, at 3127.312.

Meat company Affco was untraded after reporting its annual result today, while Fisher & Paykel Appliances rose 2c to 65 ahead of its interim report tomorrow.

The company announced chairman Gary Paykel is stepping down but will remain as a director and that Ralph Waters will take on the chairmanship in the short-term.

Sanford rose 5c to 485 in the wake of its earnings report yesterday.

Fletcher Building rose 5c to 780 and Telecom fell 2c to 242.

Kathmandu, which has begun a Christmas sale promotion, rose 3c to 220. The Warehouse rose 5c to 415. Michael Hill rose 2c to 62.

Nuplex rose 4c to 249 and Pike River Coal rose 2c to 102.

SkyTV rose 5c to 465 and Cavalier rose 5c to 240. NZ Farming Systems Uruguay rose 2c to 46.

Contact fell 5c to 595 and TrustPower was unchanged at 750.

In the United States, stocks rose as economic data reinforced hopes of stabilisation in the labour and housing markets, but volume was light ahead of the Thanksgiving Day holiday.

The Dow Jones industrial average provisionally closed up 0.3 per cent to end at 10,464.40, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 0.5 per cent at 1110.63, and the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 0.3 per cent at 2176.05.

- NZPA