KEY POINTS:
Taking its lead from United States and Australian equities, the New Zealand sharemarket gained 1 per cent today.
Australia's market surged 3 per cent.
However, brokers said volumes were light and many investors were waiting on the sidelines waiting for international market to settle down before committing to the market.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed up 37.5 points up on 3708.1.
"It's clearly better, but the volumes were disappointing," said Forsyth Barr broker David Price.
"Investors are still very much sitting on the sidelines. They are unconvinced about what's going on."
He said investors needed to see more stability in global markets and a convincing corporate result round this month to "show NZ Inc is alive and well".
Market leader Telecom led the market up with a 9c jump to 407 with brokers assessing it has been over sold and cheap compared with its international peers.
No.2 stock Fletcher Building also performed well, rising 9c to 1016 while third ranked Contact Energy did even bettter, rising 14c to 776 as power prices rose during the hot, dry summer.
The Warehouse jumped 19c to 584 on optimism the case about whether Foodstuffs or Woolworths will be able to launch takeover bids will be resolved quickly.
Trustpower fell 10c to 760 following its disappointing result yesterday. Mr Price said there were concerns about a $3 million blowout in overheads that were not fully explained.
Hallenstein Glasson rose 9c to 371 with relief that a new chief executive had been appointed.
Air NZ remained under pressure, losing 3c to 178.
Australian listed stocks performed strongly in line with that market - Lion Nathan up 15c to 1075, ANZ up 120 to 3015 and Westpac also up 120 to 2970.
MFS NZ remained suspended after its unit MFS Pacific defaulted on its loans and suspended all repayments.
Guocoleisure, formerly BIL Investments, rose 8c to 75.
Briscoe rose 5c to 140 despite announcing a disappointing Christmas sales period.
Dominion Finance fell 5c to 135 amid further worries about the sector.
NZ Oil and Gas rose 3c to 113 after announcing it had an outstanding three months to December.
- NZPA