KEY POINTS:
The sharemarket broke a six-day losing streak in early trading today with market leader Telecom leading the way.
The NZSX-50 was up 21.42 points to 4211.08 at 10.20am. Turnover was solid at $53m and rises outnumbered falls 27 to eight.
Telecom was up 9c to 457, above the 455 it reached yesterday at the same time when there was an initial positive response to the appointment of BT's Paul Reynolds as its new boss. While investor enthusiasm waned yesterday, today it was rekindled.
No 2 stock Fletcher Building rose 3c to 1233 and Air NZ, which has been under the kosh since Qantas sold its 4.2 per cent stake on Tuesday, rose 2c to 260, given an updraft by the New Zealand dollar powering over US77c.
Three in-play stocks were up --Tourism Holdings by 5c to 255, The Warehouse up 4c to 607 and Software of Excellence by 3c to 259.
Exchange operator NZX was up 10c to 1160.
Rail operator Toll holding was put on a trading halt pending an announcement over its ownership. It last traded at 280.
Stocks were up pretty much across the board with only three of the 50 down and those only by a cent.
Among the small stocks, Wellington Drive was down 2c to 38 and Dorchester Pacific was up 4c to 171.
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In the US, stocks closed little changed after the Federal Reserve said it sees moderate economic growth over coming quarters but signalled it remains concerned about inflation.
The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 5.45 points to end at 13,422.28. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index dipped 0.63 of a point to finish at 1505.71. But the Nasdaq Composite Index added 3.02 points, or 0.12 per cent, to 2608.37.
- NZPA