KEY POINTS:
A strong Wall Street session overnight encouraged the New Zealand sharemarket to a new six-week high today.
The benchmark NZSX-50 Index, which rose 0.9 per cent yesterday, was up 11.15 points to 4186.43 at 10.10am.
Telecom continued its strong run this week. It was up another 2c to 493, having gained nearly 2 per cent in each of the other two trading days this week.
Of the other top three stocks, Fletcher Building was up 4c to 1115 while Contact Energy was up 5c to a record 930.
Star performer of the morning was Infratil which shot up 13c to a record high of 598. It has risen 10 per cent this year.
Retailer Hallenstein Glasson was up 5c to 510 and PGG Wrightson was up 2c to 154.
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On Wall Street, US stocks closed sharply higher as a drop in oil prices calmed worries about inflation and news of an unexpected rise in home sales raised hopes the housing market is stabilising.
The rally took the Dow and S&P 500 to their highest levels since February 27.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 128.00 points, or 1.03 per cent, at 12,510.30. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index ended up 13.22 points, or 0.93 per cent, at 1437.77 and the Nasdaq composite Index up 28.07 points, or 1.16 per cent, at 2450.33.
- NZPA W