Sharemarket moves upwards

The New Zealand sharemarket put in another good performance today, continuing its three-week bullish run.

The benchmark NZX-50 index made strong gains in the morning before easing off in the afternoon. At 5pm it was up 44.954 points, or 1.475 per cent, to 3092.803, on top of yesterday's 31.6-point gain.

Turnover of 52.6 million shares was worth $122.5m.

The benchmark index risen steadily since the middle of July, when it hovered around 2758.65, and is now at levels not seen since last October.

It was another impressive performance by the local market, led by the blue chips stocks today, said Grant Williamson, director of Hamilton, Hindin, Greene.

"There are quite a few bright spots on the market.

"It was pretty much in reaction to what's happening overseas at the moment. Offshore markets were very solid last night."

Investor confidence continued to return and expectations were higher for the coming reporting season, he said.

The Warehouse was up 11c at 405 showed confidence returning to the retail sector, Williamson said.

Telecom was the most heavily traded stock, up 3c, or 1.1 per cent, to 286. Guinness Peat Group also saw solid volumes and was up 1c to 76.

Other stocks doing well were Michael Hill International, up 3c to 69 and Cavalier Corporation, up 10c, or 4.35 per cent, to 240.

Sky TV was up 16c, or 3.64 per cent, to 456 and Air New Zealand was up 4c to 115, while AMP gained 25, or 3.6 per cent, to 725.

Contact Energy was up 20c, or 3.15 per cent, to 654.

Tourism Holdings has been asked to explain by tomorrow morning why its share price increased as much as 18c to 64. It finished the day at 58.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was down 4c, or 1.21 per cent, to 326.

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Wall Street's big indexes all rose more than 1 per cent today, including the Dow Jones industrial average, which climbed 115 points. Better corporate earnings pushed the Dow Jones average up 725 points in July to its best month in nearly seven years.

- NZPA