NZ Shares: Market starts strongly after Easter break

The New Zealand sharemarket started strongly after the Easter break, as dual-listed banking shares leapt ahead.

ANZ was up $1.18 or 5.9 per cent to $21.08, with Westpac up $1.10 or 4.6 per cent to $25.10, although both rises were on low volumes.

The sharp lift in bank shares followed the lead of the United States where bets that major banks will post reassuring quarterly results fuelled a run-up in financial stocks.

Around 10.15am today the benchmark NZX-50 index was up 24.31 points, nearly 1 per cent, to 2595.46, following a 2.2-point rise on Thursday.

Among the market leaders Telecom was unchanged early on $2.36, Fletcher Building gained 20c to $6.40 and Contact Energy was unchanged on $5.75.

Mainfreight gained 20c early to $4.20, Ebos Group lifted 10c to $4.75, The Warehouse was up 10c to $3.43, Trustpower added 7c to $7.00, NZX was up 5c to $6.75, and Cavalier Corp gained 4c to $1.89.

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In the US, optimism about banks offset uneasiness about the fate of General Motors. The market was also knocked by a report from Boeing that cuts in output of wide-body planes and lower-than-expected aircraft prices would hurt first-quarter profit.

That sparked caution about the economy's health and the corporate earnings season just getting under way.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.3 per cent to 8057.81, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 0.3 per cent to 858.73, and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.1 per cent to 1653.31.

- NZPA