NZ stocks: Shares lifted by Wall St

12:00 pm

After an uninspiring start, the sharemarket started to lift mid-morning following a sharp late rally on Wall Street.

The NZSE was up 10.02 points to 2038.07 at 11.30am on light volume of $30.3 million.

"It's a very subdued beginning," said Forsyth Barr Frater Williams broker Don Turkington.

"The US market has kicked on quite hard today with the Dow up over 120 (up 1.25 per cent) and the Nasdaq even better, up 50 (up 3 per cent), but that hasn't translated into a lot of enthusiasm here."

The Dow closed up 129.88 points at 9,893.84 while the Nasdaq closed ahead 58.2 at 1963.1. The US market was boosted by an encouraging report by Cisco Systems.

Dr Turkington said that that had been a recent pattern lately, where the market had started quietly and the real interest developed after the US market closed.

"We trust we will see a little more action later in the day."

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare topped the turnover with 330,000 shares traded, worth $5.8 million. It dropped 15c to 1755. Its "ugly sister", Fisher & Paykel Appliances, gained 20c to 980. The main momentum came from Telecom up 4c at 499, Carter Holt Harvey up 2c to 163 and Fletcher Building up 3c to 277.

Tower was unchanged at 520 after posting a 22 per cent fall in net profit to $77.2 million for the year to September 30.

It slightly bettered forecasts.

AMP was off 32c at 2360 and Kirkaldies was down 30c at 490, while on the plus side NZ Refining up 15c to 1655, Sanford, up 15c to 630, Sky City, up 5c to 620, The Warehouse, up 10c to 660 and Westpac NZ, up 5c to 1730.

There were 38 rises and 25 falls among the 108 stocks traded.

- NZPA