KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket started the trading day confidently, following rises in US equities overnight and a continuing fall in the price of oil.
Among stocks to gain early was Air New Zealand, up 6c to 121, as it clambers up from lows below 110 in recent weeks. Airlines in the US are also gaining with an index of airline stocks there surging 22 per cent.
Also helping pull the NZ market up was top stock Telecom, up 6c early to 346, having dropped 5c yesterday.
Around 10.15am the benchmark NZSX-50 index was up 26.66 points to 3170.58, having eased 4.4 points yesterday.
Other blue chip stocks making strong early showings were Contact Energy, which gained 8c to 817, and Fletcher Building, up 14c to 665.
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was up 4c early to 239, Nuplex was up 5c to 530, Sky City up 3c to 305, Sky TV up 5c to 434, and Tower up 4c to 208.
Among stocks to fall early were New Zealand Oil and Gas, down 5c to 151 and NZ Refining Co down 3c to 670.
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In the US, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 1.18 per cent to 11,602.50, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index ended up 1.35 per cent at 1277.00. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 1.07 per cent at 2303.96.
The rise in US stocks came as oil prices slid over US$3 a barrel, taking the edge off a raft of disappointing earnings from American Express and others as well as a weak outlook from iPod maker Apple.
Oil, which last week had its biggest weekly decline ever, lost 2.4 per cent in New York as the US dollar rose, easing some worries about the impact of higher energy costs on consumers and businesses.
Consumer stocks like Coca-Cola and Wal-Mart as well as the airlines - all sensitive to higher fuel costs - gained.
- NZPA
