KEY POINTS:
The sharemarket convincingly pulled out of its most recent dive, repeating the improved performance of markets around the world following a recovery on Wall Street.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed up 32.0 points, or 1.0 per cent, at 3091.4, on turnover totalling $112.6 million.
The index touched a new three-year low of 3001 yesterday, but zoomed up 1.4 per cent in the first quarter of an hour of trading today.
"Finally, a reasonably positive day," said Grant Williamson of Hamilton Hindin Greene.
"...It is on reasonably light volume, but we are starting to see a lot of the oversold stocks come in for some support as bargain hunters enter the market."
After hitting a new three-year low yesterday, Fletcher Building led gains among the blue chips with a 5.6 per cent increase, rising 34c to 638.
Telecom was up 5c at 343, Contact rose 8c to 748, Sky TV was up 8c at 423, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare gained 2c to 225, and Kiwi Income Property Trust was up a cent at 111.
Under pressure were Auckland Airport, down 6c at 180, Sky City, down 2c at 296, Infratil, down 3c at 192, and F&P Appliances, 4c lower at 194.
"I think it is still a case of foreign investors selling New Zealand stocks and repatriating the funds ahead of a Reserve Bank announcement next week on possible interest rate cuts, which would of course affect the currency," Mr Williamson said.
Rakon, which announced it had formed a joint venture in China with Timemaker, in which it had also bought a 40 per cent stake, rose 10c to 270.
Amid lower oil prices, NZ Oil & Gas was down 5c at 166, while its coal-mining offshoot Pike River Coal rose a cent to 213.
Vector was up 4c at 203, TrustPower gained 8c to 760, NZ Refining was up 10c at 665, Ebos rose 9c to 430, Hallenstein Glasson rose 5c to 270, and Mainfreight gained 8c to 640.
The Warehouse lost 3c to 387, Tourism Holdings fell 10c to 130, Steel & Tube was down 2c at 253, and NZ Farming Systems Uruguay fell a cent to 174.
Among dual-listed stocks, ANZ recovered 73c to 2325, Westpac jumped 110 to 2555 and AMP gained 15c to 826, while Lion Nathan fell 26c to 1050.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index was up 0.9 per cent at 4913, and Japan's Nikkei share average rose 1 per cent.
Earlier on Wall Street, US stocks rallied more than 2 per cent, powered by the best day for banks in 16 years as unexpectedly strong results from Wells Fargo & Co relieved worry about a credit crisis spiralling out of control.
A US$4 ($5.25) drop in oil prices gave more fuel to the rally, offsetting an early report that showed US consumer prices in June rose by the most since the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in September 2005.
- NZPA
