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The sharemarket opened strongly this morning after a strong showing on Wall Street.
Analysts said a raised buyout offer for US bank Bear Stearns suggested financial stocks may have reached bottom, especially in light of fresh data that fuelled hopes for a turnaround in housing.
Here, the benchmark NZSX-50 index was up 20.2 points to 3446 at 10.20am after it lost 41.56 points on Thursday ahead of the Easter break.
The market was up without help from the three leaders. Telecom was unchanged on 382 as was Contact Energy on 824, while Fletcher Building was down 6c to 850.
Freightways rose 9c to 304 after it announced it was buying Now Couriers in Auckland for $7.5 million plus a possible buyout of $3.5m.
Other good rises in the top 50 included Pumpkin Patch, 14c to 180, Ebos, 10c to 460, Rakon 15c to 230 and Infratil, 4c to 214.
On the downside, Wakefield Hospital fell 20c to 685 and PGG Wrightson was down 5c to 205.
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In the US, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 187.32 points, or 1.52 per cent, to end unofficially at 12,548.64.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 20.37 points, or 1.53 per cent, to finish unofficially at 1349.88. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 68.64 points, or 3.04 per cent, to close unofficially at 2326.75.
JPMorgan Chase & Co lifted its offer for Bear Stearns to US$10 ($12.70) a share from US$2, helping alleviate concerns that other investment banking shares could tumble.
- NZPA