Strong start for NZ shares as world markets rise

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The New Zealand sharemarket rose strongly in early trade, after stocks rose across the globe as risk appetite returned following progress in resolving Japan's nuclear crisis.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was up 16.25 points to 3364.61, having risen 8.9 points yesterday.

Fletcher Building shares gained 5c early today to 878, Abano Healthcare was up 5c to 435, Sky City added 4c to 337, Telecom was up 2c to 200.5, The Warehouse gained 3c to 342, and Ryman Healthcare added 3c to 237.

Stocks rising 2c early included Vector to 243, Tower to 175, Restaurant Brands to 230, Pumpkin Patch to 132, and Air New Zealand to 114.

In the United States buyers were enticed by the biggest proposed merger of the year.

AT&T rose 1.1 percent after the company announced a $US39 billion ($NZ53b) plan to buy Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile USA, refocusing investor attention on attractive company valuations.

"The AT&T deal is just a piece of it. The other piece of it is there is a sense of some better news out of Japan and things haven't gotten any worse in Africa," said Gail Dudack, chief investment strategist at Dudack Research Group in New York.

The market volatility index fell 16.2 per cent, its biggest daily percentage drop since May, and was trading below its 14- and 200-day moving averages for the first time since the earthquake in Japan.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 1.5 percent to 12,036.53, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index climbed 1.5 per cent to 1298.38, and the Nasdaq Composite Index added 1.8 per cent to 2692.09.

- NZPA