KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket rose on light volume on a day in which it digested a late rally on Wall Street and a record cut in interest rates at home.
But it was a quiet day. The currency market was barely moved after the Reserve Bank's decision today to slash the official cash rate by 1.5 percentage points to 5 per cent.
Across the whole market stock worth just $54 million were traded. There were 45 rises and 25 falls.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed up 23.894 points, or 0.883 per cent at 2730.682, having gained 55.6 points yesterday.
David Price of Forsyth Barr said the lack of movement in the currency market showed that the rate cut was expected.
Lower interest rates mean that fixed interest securities marketed by brokers are selling fast and that investors are more willing to "chase yields" in the equity market.
"As people hunt for yield they have been looking at property stocks because the yield on them is very high," said Mr Price.
Property for Industry rose 2c to 108, AMP Office Trust rose 2c to 102 and Goodman Property rose 1c to 107.
The big mover among the leaders was Contact Energy, which rose 39c, or 5.91 per cent, to 699. The rise was on thin volume.
Telecom eased 4c to 239, while Fletcher Building eased 2c to 555.
Nuplex fell 12c to 350 after it reaffirmed its guidance for fiscal 2009 earnings despite lower-than-forecast sales in Brazil.
Westpac rose 68 to 2068 and AMP rose 20 to 660.
Methven rose 5c to 135 and Lion Nathan rose 15c to 1050. Mainfreight rose 3c to 475.
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare eased 11c to 300 but the appliances stock rose 1c to 143. SkyTV rose 15c to 345 and Sanford rose 10c to 540. Hallenstein Glassons rose 7c to 230.
Wall Street rose, after a day of volatile trade, as investors bought stocks that will hold in an economic slump. The market withstood a barrage of bad economic data and swung between pessimism and optimism but the major indices closed up more than 2 per cent.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average powered 2.05 per cent higher to 8591.69 and the Nasdaq composite climbed 2.94 per cent to 1492.38.
The Standard & Poor's 500 advanced 2.58 per cent to 870.74.
Despite the gains, volatility was high, with sharp swings in both directions.
- NZPA
