KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket jumped nearly 1 per cent today, ignoring the lead from weaker United States markets as blue chip stocks led the way.
The benchmark NZXS-50 index closed up 38.62 points, or 0.9 per cent, at a nearly one-month high of 4294.26, on turnover totalling $154 million. Rises outnumbered falls 62 to 41.
Third-ranked Contact Energy surged 13c to a record high 935 on nearly $12 million worth of shares traded.
"It's viewed as a defensive stock in a climate of rising interest rates, and exchange rates will not have a large effect on this company's performance," said Hamilton Hindin Greene partner Grant Williamson.
The New Zealand dollar hit a new post-float high against the US dollar early today of US79.45c, on the back of a weaker US dollar and supported by the prospect of higher domestic interest rates.
Fletcher Building also had a good day, rising 22c to 1242, following a number of broker upgrades, Mr Williamson said. The share price has fallen steadily after hitting a record high 1342 in May.
Top stock Telecom rose 6c to 484 largely on the back of offshore interest, particularly from Australia, sparked by the rising New Zealand dollar. Turnover was valued at $83.7m.
"...Foreign investors are looking to invest in this country, they're not prepared to put the money straight into a bank deposit, they're looking for some capital gain among the equities as well," Mr Williamson said.
Fisher & Paykel Appliances rose 9c to 372, while F&P Healthcare was up a cent at 328.
"A number of investors will be thinking that these sorts of companies will become prime takeover targets because of their cheapness, which is due temporarily to the NZ dollar, it's not due to the companies losing any quality," he said.
News was thin on the ground ahead of the June reporting season.
Tourism Holdings fell 2c to 270 ahead of the Saturday deadline of MFS Living and Leisure's 280-per-share takeover offer. MFS said today it had reached acceptances for 71.3 per cent of THL shares.
Other stocks to decline included Trustpower, down 5c at 835, Michael Hill, off 10c at 960, Air New Zealand, down a cent at 268, and Tower, a cent lower at 241.
Mainfreight rose 5c to 755, Freightways was up 3c at 406, and Infratil rose 2c to 312.
Dual-listed stocks were mixed, with ANZ down 5c at 3275, Westpac up 35c at 2965, AMP up 5c at 1155, and Lion Nathan up 3c at 1003.
- NZPA