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The New Zealand sharemarket opened up nearly a third of a per cent, led up by top stock Telecom.
Around five minutes after the market's 10am opening, the benchmark NZSX-50 index was up 12.93 points to 4296.98, with Telecom up 4c to 460 after falling a cent on Friday, when it returned $1.1 billion to shareholders and cancelled one share in nine.
The early lift in the New Zealand market today followed a rise in US stocks on Friday, where all time highs were hit after a solid employment report rekindled optimism about the US economy and corporate profits.
The NZSX-50 is not too far off its record high of 4343.7, having climbed for the past seven weeks from below 3895.
Among stocks rising early today was Abano Healthcare, up 6c to 406, after the company forecast a net profit range of $6.8 million to $7.5m for the current financial year, from $5m in the latest year.
It also said today that since the notice of a partial takeover offer from company Masthead it had received approaches from other parties expressing interest in it.
Other early risers included Fisher & Paykel Appliances up 3c to 358, F&P Healthcare up 2c to 336, Hellaby Holdings up 3c to 288, Ryman Holdings up 2c to 222, Trustpower up 5c to 875 and The Warehouse up 2c to 539.
Among stocks to fall early were Sky City down 7c to 532, and Freightways down 3c to 380.
The ramp up in United States share prices came after data showing the US economy added more jobs in September than economists had expected, while an earlier estimate of job losses in August was revised to a gain, quashing fears of recession.
Friday's record run-up cemented the market's recovery from a late northern summer sell-off when a credit squeeze and mounting housing market losses drove investors away from equities.
The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 0.66 per cent, to end at 14,066.01. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index jumped 0.96 per cent, to 1557.59 - a record close. The Nasdaq Composite Index finished up 1.71 per cent, at 2780.32.
During the session, the Dow reached an intraday record high of 14,124.54 and the S&P 500 hit an all-time high of 1561.91.
The Nasdaq climbed to 2784.93, its highest level since January 2001.
For the week, the Dow gained 1.23 per cent, the S&P 500 rose 2.02 per cent and the Nasdaq climbed 2.9 per cent, marking the index's best weekly climb since March.
- NZPA