NZ stocks: Shares surge in broad rally

The sharemarket's benchmark top-50 index closed above the 2800-point level for the first time since November 2008, pulling away from recent five-year lows.

The NZX-50 closed up 52.78 points, or 1.9 per cent, at 2819.05, following a 46-point rise on Monday. Turnover was valued at $118.6 million.

"Just follow-on from overseas markets - the overnight markets were strong and of course Asian and Australian markets have been reasonable," said Stephen Wright of ASB Securities.

The index had hit a high during the day of 2837.7.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index gave up almost all of the day's gains to be up 0.2 per cent at 3890.4 following a no-change, as expected, to interest rates from the Reserve Bank of Australia. Just five of the top-50 local stocks were negative. The Warehouse lost 3c to $3.75, Steel & Tube fell 2c to $2.94, Sanford was down 5c at $5.55, Lion Nathan fell 5c to $14.98, and Telstra was down 5c at $4.28.

Top stock Telecom gained 4c to a seven-month high of $2.78, Contact Energy jumped 26c to $6.10, its highest since late March, and Fletcher Building was up 3c at $6.93. Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rose 6c to $3.11, F&P Appliances was up 5c at 56c, Auckland Airport edged up 2c to $1.71, and SkyCity gained 7c to $2.77.

NZX jumped 33c to $7.51 after some signs of improved performance despite sluggish turnover in April.

The $3.2 billion in capital raised by companies in the first four months of 2009 was already higher than the $3.1 billion raised for all of 2008, the market operator said.

Mainfreight surged 15c to $4.70, carpetmaker Cavalier rose 10c to $1.75, TrustPower rose 15c to $7.30, Rakon jumped 18c to $1.50, Vector put on 5c to $2.18 and Port of Tauranga gained 10c to $5.60.

Asian markets were mixed after the previous day's big rally as investors became cautious ahead of the United States government's "stress tests" for the 19 largest American financial companies later this week.

Global markets had surged on Monday amid signs of recovery in China, India and the US, with several Asian markets rising more than 5 per cent.

- NZPA