KEY POINTS:
The sharemarket opened strongly today as Wall Street's rally continued.
The local market continues to be driven by Wall Street where US stocks closed higher as expectations of another Federal Reserve interest rate cut to shore up the economy fuelled a further recovery in shares of banks, insurers and home builders.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index was up 22 points, or 0.6 per cent, to 3725 10 minutes after opening.
It follows a disappointing session yesterday when the market was up 1 per cent in the morning but ended in the negative after a big fall in the Australian market.
Market leader Telecom was up 1c to 404, having lost 3c yesterday. No 2 stock Fletcher Building, which yesterday lost 15c, was today up 5c to 1020 while Contact Energy rose 7c to 762 after reporting reasonable quarterly metrics yesterday.
Auckland Airport was up 7c to 278, Fisher & Paykel Appliances up 8c to 299, Sky TV up 4c to 432 and Sky City up 5c to 541.
National Property Trust which yesterday rose 10c to 65c after reporting an $11.4m profit, of which $11.1m was property revaluations, today fell back 3c to 62c.
NZX fell 15c to 785.
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In the US, the Dow Jones industrial average closed unofficially up 96.41 points, or 0.78 per cent, to 12,480.30. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 8.27 points, or 0.61 per cent, at 1362.24 and the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 8.15 points, or 0.35 per cent, to 2358.06.
- NZPA