KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket posted modest gains as world markets had a better day.
A lift of 10c in Telecom's share price to 231 helped but Fletcher Building struggled, falling 12c to 549.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed up 17.223 points, or 0.627 per cent, at 2762.82. As the New Zealand market closed the Australian market was up 4 per cent.
The New Zealand market opened after the Federal Reserve had cut United States interest rates half a percentage point, but as the US equity market gave up gains.
There were 46 rises and 34 falls and volume was worth $83.67 million.
"It is not all doom and loom out there," said Grant Williamson, partner at Hamilton Hindin Greene.
"Investors are still very wary with what is happening overseas and ahead of the election," he said.
Fletcher Building was trading on recent lows but Telecom had managed to post gains, he said.
Some companies were indicating they were handling difficult trading conditions well at annual meetings.
Hellaby, which held its annual meeting today, rose 3c to 168 and PGG Wrightson fell 3c to 162 as it told shareholders it was unlikely to be able to get its proposed partnership with Silver Fern Farms back on track within an acceptable time frame.
Freightways fells 6c to 300 after reporting a lift in revenue and profit in the September quarter.
Auckland Airport was unchanged at 176 after telling shareholders its profit was likely to be at the bottom end of a predicted range.
Methven rose 10c to 140, Steel & Tube rose 7c to 291 and Rakon rose 4c to 184.
Mainfreight eased 20c to 510, Pike River Coal eased 3c to 133, Sanford fell 12c to 540 and Trust Power 15c to 725.
Contact fell 4c to 711.
Overnight, stocks rallied in Europe, led by basic resources, insurance and banking shares.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 jumped 7.5 per cent to 897.06 points, and Britain's FTSE 100 rose 8.1 per cent to 4242.54.
But in the US, the Dow Jones industrial average closed down 0.82 per cent at 8990.96.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index slipped 1.11 per cent to 930.09, although the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.47 per cent to 1657.21.
The late US sell-off sapped a rally that had driven up the Dow and S&P by more than 2 per cent after the Fed interest rate cut.
Wall Street sold off after the chief executive of economic bellwether General Electric was reported as saying he aimed for flat profit next year, even if revenues fall by 10 to 15 per cent.
- NZPA
