KEY POINTS:
Contact Energy held yesterday's gain in early trading on the sharemarket today while the other two heavyweights, Telecom and Fletcher Building, lifted the market into the positive.
Wall Street ended lower despite the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates for the seventh successive time. Investors had anticipated the cut and the Fed's signal that the easing cycle was complete brought out the sellers.
Contact Energy gained 32c to 970 yesterday after BG Group announced it would launch a A$12.9 billion ($15.7 billion) bid for Contact's 51 per cent owner, Australia's Origin. Contact was unchanged today.
Analysts believe BG may either sell the Contact stake or may be forced to make a full takeover if it is successful in its Origin bid.
Market leader Telecom, which reports its third quarter result tomorrow, was up 4c to 382 while Fletcher Building, which has been beaten down in the last month on fears about the slowing economy, regained 8c to 865.
Fletcher Building yesterday announced it would buy Cairns-based business Morinda Australia Pty Ltd and the assets of All Steel Products Ltd.
The NZSX-50 benchmark index, up 19 points yesterday largely thanks to Contact, was another 12 points higher today to 3836 at 10.25am today.
There were few other moves of note among the top 50. Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rose 3c to 270 and Rakon rose 3c to 315 in response to the weaker dollar.
Mainfreight was up 5c to 690 while Steel & Tube fell 5c to 300.
Oceana Gold was down 55c to 2.75 after announcing its first quarter result.
- NZPA
