Results boost NZ sharemarket

The New Zealand sharemarket rose in early trade as investors faced a barrage of company results.

Air New Zealand was up 2c to 123 early after reporting normalised full year earnings before tax falling 6 per cent to $137 million, amid subdued demand for air travel in tough economic conditions.

Nuplex shot up 15c, or 5 percent, to 310, after announcing a profit four times higher than a year earlier.

NZ Oil & Gas, which announced a full year net loss of $3.3m as exploration costs ate into earnings, slipped 1c early to 118.

Auckland International Airport delivered a better than expected annual result, with underlying net profit after tax of $105.05m being 0.8 per cent lower than the previous year.

Its shares were unchanged early at 197.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was up 13.86 points to 3019.91, after falling 18.6 points yesterday with the decline smaller than that in other markets.

Telecom lifted 3c early to 202, Port of Tauranga gained 8c to 673, Sanford was up 8c to 400, Contact Energy gained 2c to 574, and Ebos Group added 5c to 665.

In the United States, stocks staged a comeback, breaking a four-day losing streak by major indexes, as key technical support triggered bargain hunting that offset weak economic data.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.2 percent to 10,060.06, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 0.3 percent to 1055.33, and the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.8 percent to 2141.54.

- NZPA