Telstra news helps lift New Zealand sharemarket

The New Zealand sharemarket started the week strongly, with Telstra rising a hefty 9.21 per cent after it struck a deal to participate in Australia's broadband network plans.

Telecom rose 5c to 194, with brokers citing valuation comparisons with Telstra as a driver, though the stock opened firmly. Telstra rose 35c to 415.

The other focus was China's plans to be more flexible with the management of its currency, which helped improve investor appetite for risky assets such as stocks.

The benchmark NZX-50 index closed up 20.745 points, or 0.681 per cent, at 3068.248. It has risen eight of the last nine trading days. Turnover was worth $72.97 million. There were 47 rises and 28 falls among the 106 stocks traded.

James Snell, director institutional equities at First NZ Capital, said the local market was reacting to Asian markets and the comments out of China about the easing of the currency peg against the US dollar.

"Also helping our market is that Telecom is up a bit," he said. "Generally the market is relatively quiet for a Monday," he said.

Contact rose 8c to 585, Fletcher Building rose 7c to 821, Port of Tauranga rose 10c to 680 and NZ Refining rose 7c to 317. AMP rose 2c to 698.

NZX rose 2c to 152. NZOG eased 3c to 130 and Pike River Coal was unchanged at 92.

Hallenstein Glasson dropped 3c to 360, Michael Hill International slipped 2c to 67 early but ended unchanged at 69, and Hellaby Holdings was down 3c to 160. The Warehouse eased 3c to 355.

"We're a bit surprised by the market's reaction to the China news. They've talked about it for months so it's hardly been unexpected. At the end of the day, whilst their removing the peg to US dollar, not much else has changed as Chinese regulators will still dictate the size and direction of any currency move. It's not open to market forces," said Ben Potter of IG Markets.

In the United States stocks ground higher in another lightly traded session on Friday (local time), ending a nervous week with gains despite signs of economic weakness at home and worries about public debt in Europe.

Major indexes rose for the second straight week even though housing and labour market data raised concern about the fragility of the recovery.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.2 per cent to 10,450.64, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 0.1 per cent to 1117.51, and the Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.1 per cent to 2309.80.

For the week, the Dow and the S&P 500 gained 2.4 per cent and the Nasdaq added 3 per cent.

- NZPA