KEY POINTS:
A sharemarket rally on the back of yesterday's unprecedented intervention by the Reserve Bank in the currency market continued today, albeit with insipid force.
News of the intervention helped turn the sharemarket around yesterday from mildly negative to a 0.5 per cent gain.
Today, the benchmark NZSX-50 index was initially down but by 10.20am was up 4.42 points to 4209.94.
Although the dollar dropped 2 per cent on the intervention, it partially recovered and settled around US75c this morning.
Dental software company Software of Excellence International fell 3c to $2.65 after it received a previously signalled takeover offer from United States-based Fortune 500 company Henry Schein.
Henry Schein has offered $2.70 for each SOE share, after payment of a dividend of 3c per share, in a bid worth $77.2 million.
Telecom, which slid against the market yesterday, was up 3c to 460 today.
But No 2 stock Fletcher Building was off 1c to 1275.
Exporter Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was up 3c to 350 and agricultural services company PGG Wrightson up 3c to 177.
Air NZ, which gets a net benefit from a high dollar, was down 3c to 305.
Sky TV was off 4c to 560 and Tower was down 3c to 251.
Pumpkin Patch, having lost a further 16c to a year low of 364 yesterday, was up 1c to 365 today.
It issued a profit warning late on Friday saying the strong dollar and interest rate hikes were expected to lower its 2007 profit.
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On Wall Street, US stocks ended little changed as rising oil prices boosted the energy sector but lingering concern about higher interest rates kept investors on the defensive.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.57 of a point to end at 13,424.96. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 1.45 points at 1509.12. But the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 1.39 points to 2572.15.
- NZPA