KEY POINTS:
The sharemarket, which yesterday slumped 1.5 per cent to a seven-week low, opened firmer today, encouraged by a pick-up on Wall Street.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index was up 21 points to 3517 at 10.20am, following yesterday's 51.5 point dive.
Market leader Telecom was up 2c to 387, Contact Energy, which was off 21c yesterday, was up 2c to 866 and Fletcher Building up 11c to 748.
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare got an 8c boost to 245 as a result of the lower kiwi dollar. Fisher & Paykel Appliances was up 3c to 230.
Freightways was up 4c to 329 and Methven up 4c to 174.
Retailer Postie Plus, which yesterday reported a 7.5 per cent fall in third quarter sales and the fire sale of its Arbuckles chain to major shareholder Jan Cameron, was down 2c to 40c.
Investors in fellow retailer Briscoe reacted badly, selling it down 5c to 105.
Finance company Dorchester Pacific was down 2c to 41.
In the US, stocks ended mixed as investment giant Lehman Brothers said it was seeking fresh capital in the face of a big loss and tech sector weakness hurt market sentiment.
Skittishness about Apple weighed on tech shares as the company announced a new lower-priced version of its popular iPhone with new features.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 78.49 points (0.64 per cent) to 12,288.30 at the closing bell as blue chips saw a rebound from a 3 per cent slide on Friday.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite, however, lost 15.10 points (0.61 per cent) to 2459.46, while the Standard & Poor's 500 broad-market index increased a modest 1.80 points (0.13 per cent) to a preliminary close of 1362.48.
- NZPA