Charge from heavyweights boosts index over 1pc

The New Zealand sharemarket turned its back on three consecutive days of decline, building momentum after an early small gain to close up more than 1 per cent.

The NZX-50 index ended the session up 30.77 points, or 1.04 per cent, at 2995.37. It clawed back around half of the nearly 63-point decline in the past three trading days.

Telecom notched up a more than 2 per cent gain to close up 5c at $1.93, leading a largely positive charge from the top stocks.

Contact Energy rose 8c to $5.76, Fletcher Building jumped 16c to $7.69, Auckland Airport was up 2c at $1.93, SkyCity rose 4c to $2.97 and Sky TV gained 2c to $4.76.

Among other stocks to gain, Air New Zealand was up 2c at $1.04, NZ Oil and Gas rose 4c to $1.25, The Warehouse lifted 6c to $3.56, and Restaurant Brands was up 3c at $2.30.

Abano Healthcare surged 12c, or 2.4 per cent, to close at $5.10.

On the down side, Guinness Peat Group lost a cent to 65c, Property For Industry was down a cent at $1.12, network company Vector shed 3c to $2.11, NZX fell 4c to $1.46, and Ebos was down 5c at $6.25.

Allied Farmers rose 9 per cent, or 0.4c, to 4.8c after it managed to negotiate another extension to its banking arrangement with Westpac.

Meat processor Affco was untraded, but closed on Monday at 37c, after majority shareholder Talley's Group announced a full takeover offer for the company at 37c after the market closed.

Fellow takeover target NZ Farming Systems Uruguay rose a cent to 54c, a cent below the bid by Olam International.

Dual-listed stocks were generally firmer, with Westpac up 36c at $27.55, ANZ up 30c at $27.40 and AMP up 10c at $6.55, but Telstra eased 2c to $3.98.

Australia's S&P/ASX-200 Index was up 45.3 points, or 1.04 per cent, at 4403.6, on the back of gains across Asian markets and higher metal prices.

Earlier, United States stocks rose, spurred by optimism ahead of earnings from key technology companies and after Boeing announced strong orders.

Investors bet there would be solid reports from IBM and chip maker Texas Instruments. But shares of IBM fell nearly 4 per cent after the closing bell after its revenues missed expectations, and Texas Instruments slumped 6 per cent as its revenue failed to impress.

- NZPA