KEY POINTS:
The sharemarket recovered from a gently negative open, helped by Fletcher Building reaffirming profit guidance.
The NZSX-50 index closed up 18.02 points, or 0.4 per cent, at 4107.15, on turnover totalling a light $85.8 million.
The market fell 1.1 per cent yesterday.
"It was led higher pretty much on the back of the heavyweights," said Forsyth Barr's David Price.
Among the top three stocks, Telecom rose 6c to 427, Fletcher Building was up 12c at 1130, and Contact Energy fell 2c to 896.
Fletcher Building said it was comfortable with analyst expectations of annual net profit before unusuals of between $450 million-$460 million.
It said earnings for the first four months were ahead of last year, despite softness in some sectors.
"There's been a lot of talk of weakness in a lot of different housing markets, but for them to reaffirm guidance ... in a very difficult environment is a very good result," Mr Price said.
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was up 3c at 324, F&P Appliances rose 6c to 340, Auckland Airport was flat at 307, Sky City was up 5c at 547, and Sky TV fell 6c to 576.
Air New Zealand, which has taken a battering lately due to high fuel prices and lost 5c yesterday as Pacific Blue opened up its domestic service, was unchanged at 200.
Property investor Kiwi Income Property Trust rose 2c to 139 after posting a nearly 80 per cent rise in first half profit, its first result under new accounting rules.
Wellington Drive Technologies rose 2 per cent, or 1c, to 49 on news of a US order for 70,000 of its high-efficiency motors.
Of the handful of top-50 stocks to decline, The Warehouse lost 4c to 522, Steel & Tube was down 3c at 405, Rakon lost 5c to 510, and ING Property was down 2c at 109.
Michael Hill was up 10c at 1050, TrustPower rose 5c to 870, PGG Wrightson gained 3c to 210, and Hallenstein Glasson was up 5c at 440.
Among dual-listed stocks, ANZ jumped 70c to 3420, Westpac was up 29c at 3430, AMP fell 15c to 1165, and Lion Nathan was up 16c at 1071.
- NZPA