NZ sharemarket recovers well

File photo / NZ Herald

The New Zealand sharemarket recovered well today from a sharp fall on Thursday as demand returned for leading shares.

The benchmark NZX-50 index closed up 34.847 points, or 1.096 per cent, at 3212.937, after yesterday's 48.8-point fall.

"It was a pretty big round of profit-taking yesterday but we've managed to bounce back pretty strongly," said Grant Williamson, director at Hamilton, Hindin, Greene.

After a reasonable fall yesterday Fletcher Building rose 10c to 816 and Telecom rose 2c to 204.

All the leaders were trading higher, said Mr Williamson.

Contact Energy rose 4c to 570.

Tower rose 4c to 187 after saying it will launch an unsolicited cash and scrip takeover offer for all of Fidelity Life Assurance Company Ltd, which values the target at $118 million.

"The market obviously likes the story. Tower had mentioned previously that it was looking for acquisitions," Mr Williamson said.

Another standout was AMP Office Trust, which rose 4c to 78. Goodman Property rose 2c to 97 and property for Industry rose 1c to 116.

Infratil rose 3c to 181 and Port of Tauranga rose 11c to 701. Lyttelton Port of Christchurch called off merger talks with Port Otago today but the tightly held stock did not trade.

On the day the goods and services tax was hiked to 15 per cent retailers performed fairly well. The Warehouse rose 5c to 383, Michael Hill was unchanged at 67, Briscoe Group rose 2c to 134 and Pumpkin Patch rose 1c to 193.

Air NZ rose 1c to 128 after Moody's Investors Service hiked the airline's credit rating a notch.

NZ Refining Co was up 11c to 379 and Steel & Tube gained 4c to 249.

Kiwifruit company Satara Cooperative was up 15c to 100 after announcing plans, after the market closed yesterday, to merge with EastPack.

In the United States, the session was volatile, split between investors positioning for the end of the quarter and those buying on encouraging data. After up and down moves of nearly 1 per cent, equities ended slightly lower.

The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 0.4 per cent to 10,788.05, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index declined 0.3 per cent to 1141.20, and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.3 per cent to 2368.62.

Defying September's track record as the worst month for stocks, the S&P and Nasdaq logged the biggest monthly gains since April 2009, as data showed the US economy was not in such bad shape. The S&P lifted 8.8 per cent for the month.

- NZPA