NZ stocks: Sharemarket catches up with surging Wall St

Fletcher Building and Telecom led a broadbased rally today as the New Zealand sharemarket caught up with Wall St, which continues its strong run.

The barometer NZSE-40 capital index was up 16.41 points, or 0.82 per cent, on reasonably heavy trading worth $96.06 million.

In the United States, stocks jumped on Monday, driving the market higher for seventh time in eight sessions.

James Smalley of Hamilton, Hindin and Greene said the New Zealand market's performance was encouraging after muted responses to climbing United States stocks over the past week.

The big mover was Fletcher Building, up 13c to three-year high of 317 on strong turnover.

Building was up on the back of positive analysis of its $761 million purchase of Australian building products firm The Laminex Group last month. The company had been conducting a roadshow which had gone down well in Australia.

"A few institutions liked the story and are getting in there," Mr Smalley said.

Telecom climbed 5c to 520, its highest price since June, and dominated trading with $53.22 million worth of shares changing hands.

Mr Smalley said one major overseas buyer had helped to push the stock up.

The Fisher and Paykel twins rose in line with the recovering US biotech sector and ahead of their half year results on November 7 (Healthcare) and November 8 (Appliances).

Appliances was up 35c to 1060, while Healthcare, which has a listing on the Nasdaq, rose 45c to 1075. Both are at nine-month highs.

GPG, which has lost 20 cents over the past month, rose 4c to 156, while Auckland Airport continued to perform well following its capital restructuring, up 6c to 522.

Carter Holt Harvey was up 2c to 163, recovering from its low after a better than expected third quarter earnings announcement last week, Mr Smalley said.

Ports of Auckland was up 10c to 620, on positive sentiment spilling over from its annual meeting yesterday. Rival Port of Tauranga was up 1c, to 809

National rail operator Tranz Rail slipped 1c to 152, the Warehouse was up 10c to 720, and Westpac NZ was up 25c to 1480.

There were 54 rises and 46 falls on 139 stocks traded.

Wall Street applauded the latest batch of quarterly earnings by companies and was soothed by US Secretary of State Colin Powell's suggestion of a compromise resolution on Iraq to be introduced to the United Nations Security Council this week.

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial average rocketed 214.46 points, or 2.58 per cent, to 8536.86, while the tech-loaded Nasdaq Composite jumped 21.79 points, or 1.69 per cent, to 1309.65. The broad Standard and Poor's 500 advanced 15.33 points, or 1.73 per cent, at 899.72.

- NZPA