KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket followed the lead of Wall St today making early gains.
Investors showed approval of Fletcher Building's half year results with a 10c rise early to 925.
That helped push the benchmark NZSX-50 index up 19.4 points to 3594.24 by 10.10am, following a two-point gain yesterday.
Fletcher today reported a net profit of $235 million in the six months to December, up 22 per cent on the year ago profit.
The company increased its fully imputed interim dividend to 24 cents per share from 22 cents - the 12th consecutive dividend increase.
Chief executive Jonathan Ling said Fletcher was comfortable with earnings prospects for the full year.
The day also started well for some other blue chips, with top stock Telecom up 3c early to 403, on top of a 5c gain yesterday.
Contact Energy was up 9c to 778 and Auckland International Airport up 5c to 265.
Other early risers included The Warehouse up 2c to 580 and Ryman Healthcare 2c to 179.
Casino operator SkyCity was down 3c to 405, having yesterday lost 9c after announcing it intended to write down the value of its cinema exhibition business by an expected $60 million.
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In the US, the Dow Jones industrial average and S&P 500 ended higher after an offer by billionaire investor Warren Buffett to take on US$800 billion ($1023.7 billion) in municipal bond risk from the top three bond insurers eased worries about further fallout from the credit crisis.
Based on the latest available data, the Dow rose 1.09 per cent, to unofficially end at 12,373.41. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 0.73 per cent, at 1348.88. The Nasdaq Composite Index was marginally down at 2320.04.
- NZPA