KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket was ahead in early trading after a strong rebound by equities in the United States.
The market in this country was pulled ahead by rises among leading stocks with Telecom up 2c early to $2.49, Contact Energy up 6c to $6.66, and Fletcher Building up 9c to $5.73.
The rise by Contact Energy followed losses of 69c on Tuesday and 6c yesterday after the company said it expected underlying earnings after tax for this financial year to be down 20 to 23 per cent.
Telecom's early gain follows a rise of 5c yesterday, with brokers saying there had been very good volume traded in the stock in the past four trading days.
Around 10.15am today the benchmark NZX-50 index was up 9.48 points to 2714.52.
Yesterday the index closed down 4.4 points, or 0.2 per cent, much smaller than falls recorded on sharemarkets elsewhere around the world.
But overnight US stocks jumped after a surprisingly healthy earnings report from IBM fuelled optimism that technology profits may fare better than other sectors during the recession.
Among only a few early share movements in this country early today Guinness Peat Group was up 1c to 92, ING Medical Properties slipped 1c to $1.09, NZ Farming Systems Uruguay eased 2c to 60, and NZ Oil &Gas added 2c to $1.26.
Preliminary closing figures from the US put the Dow Jones industrial average up 3.5 per cent, the S&P 500 Index up 4.4 per cent, and the Nasdaq Composite Index up 4.6 per cent.
- NZPA
