KEY POINTS:
Leading stocks drove New Zealand sharemarket upwards today, shrugging off a down day on Wall St.
The NZSX-50 rose 0.9 per cent or 34.99 points to 3619.46 on total turnover worth $164 million, $60m of which was Telecom's.
Falls just outnumbered rises by 45 to 42.
Australian shares also rose 0.8 per cent on talk of a major US bond insurer being bailed out, lifting bank stocks.
ABN Amro Craigs senior broker Nigel Scott said today's "surprising rise" ignored offshore sentiment and probably reflected buying by index stocks, although volume was "not huge".
Leading stocks to catch an updraft included Telecom up 4c to 395, Fletcher Building up 32c to 1011, and Contact up 20c to 825.
Auckland Airport (AIA) edged 1c upwards to 225 today after yesterday's dramatic 49c plunge after the Government tightened foreign ownership rules.
Investors feared the end of the Canada Pension Plan's partial bid for the airport but the stock recovered somewhat, closing down 24c, after the Canadians vowed to continue.
Others on the rise included Infratil up 10c to 245, Nuplex up 25c to 650, Trustpower up 10c to 790, and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare up 14c to 294.
On the downside were Mainfreight down 20c to 640, Sky City down 6c to 397, Sky TV down 5c to 5000 and Goodman Fielder's poor run continued, losing 5c to 214.
Finance company Dorchester Pacific plunged 13c, or 16.5 per cent, to a 10-year low of 66c. The company late last month downgraded its profit guidance, by up to half, citing reduced lending volumes, lower fee income and increased provisioning for its finance company.
Abano lost 15c to 480 after would-be suitor Crescent Capital Partners labelled the Abano board as irresponsible for discouraging shareholders from accepting its $5.20 offer.
Crescent has gained 2.2 per cent of acceptances on top of its 19.9 per cent stake.
Postie Plus, which yesterday reported second quarter sales picked up but at reduced margins in difficult conditions, rose 2c to 65c.
In Australia shares were up 0.8 per cent in mid-session as talk a bailout of bond insurer Ambac Financial Group was imminent lifted the banks including National Australia Bank.
Locally, Westpac was up 56c to 2661, while ANZ was up 48c to 2470 and AMP rose 10c to 860.
In the US, the Dow and S&P 500 ended down but well off their lows due in part to the Ambac story.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 45.10 points, or 0.37 per cent, to end unofficially at 12,213.80.
The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 1.68 points, or 0.07 per cent, to close unofficially at 2260.28.
- NZPA
