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Auckland International Airport shares were up nearly 6 per cent in early trading today, after the company announced it had signed a confidentiality deed with an international party interested in the airport.
The announcement comes a week after the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) opened its $3.6555 a share bid to take its stake in the airport to 40 per cent.
Shortly after the sharemarket opened today shares in the airport were up 16c, or 5.9 per cent, to 288.
Overall, the benchmark NZXS-50 index was up 5.03 points to 3952.58 around 10.15am, having risen 7.8 points yesterday after heavy losses at the start of the week.
Rises outnumbered falls by 13 to 12 out of 47 stocks traded, while turnover was 9.2 million shares with a value of $33.3 million.
Contact Energy shares were up 4c early to 814, on top of a 4c rise yesterday after announcing it and 51 per cent owner, Origin Energy, had bought the NZ oil and gas assets of Swift Energy.
Contact also said yesterday it would close its New Plymouth power plant at a cost of $25 million, and the Government would use "call in" powers over resource consents for Contact's proposed Te Mihi geothermal plant.
Putting a drag on the market early today was top stock Telecom, down 6c early to 428, after a 2c rise yesterday.
With Christmas almost here, few other stocks showed early movement. Those that did included Sanford up 4c to 400, Mainfreight up 2c to 657, Air New Zealand up 2c to 184, and Tower down 3c to 231.
In the US, stocks rose, led by technology shares, as a reassuring profit and outlook from Oracle Corp offset nagging concerns about financial companies' exposure to bad debt.
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.29 per cent, to end unofficially at 13,245.96. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 0.49 per cent, to finish unofficially at 1460.16. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 1.53 per cent, to close unofficially at 2640.86.
- NZPA