NZ sharemarket gets late boost

New Zealand shares posted a last-minute surge today after the Reserve Bank of Australia left interest rates steady, having spent almost all the session in the red.

The benchmark NZX-50 index closed up 5.06 points at 2952.40, after a 9-point gain yesterday.

Late gains by market heavyweights, including Fletcher Building, helped push the index up. Top stock Telecom was up a cent at 183, Fletcher Building rose 3c to 763, Contact Energy closed up a cent at 583, Auckland Airport rose a cent to 191, and Infratil was also a cent higher, at 161.

US markets were closed overnight, and the pulling of a billion dollar IPO in Australia by German construction company Bilfinger Berger because of weakness in markets weighed on stocks, said Bryon Burke of Craigs Investment Partners.

"It's another litmus test for how fragile equities are out there at the moment," he said.

There was little reaction to the NZIER's quarterly business survey out this morning, which showed a reversal in business confidence and activity for the June quarter.

However, the market received a shot in the arm late in the day with the RBA's decision to keep rates at 4.5 per cent, which it considered appropriate given international and domestic pressures, despite some recovery in the global economy.

NZX shares posted an early gain, hitting a high of 165 before closing at 158, up 2c. Last week NZX shares fell to a 17-month low of 140.

The market operator, which intends to buy back up to 3.571 million shares, saw monthly activity and value traded decline, in the wake of the market's 19-month high in April.

Other stocks to gain included PGG Wrightson, up 2c at 49, The Warehouse, up 4c at 340, Trustpower, 2c higher at 720, and Pike River Coal, up 4c at 93.

Blue chip casino operator Sky City fell 3c to 290, NZ Oil and Gas lost 3c to 120, and Freightways was down 4c at 269.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index, which had been headed for an 11-month low, received a boost from the central bank and jumped 1 per cent to 4269.

Stocks slipped on Asian markets due to concerns about economic growth in the United States and China, after data showed the US labour market declined for the first time this year and Chinese manufacturing softened.

- NZPA