KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket rose firmly in early trade today, after US stocks clawed back from five-year lows in a volatile session.
The NZ market was helped to move ahead early by a 12c gain in Fletcher Building shares to $6.12 and an 11c gain in Contact Energy stocks to $7.13. Telecom was up 2c to $2.28.
Stock market operator NZX was up 11c to $6.04 after posting a 20 per cent increase in net profit to $7.8 million for the nine months to the end of September.
Around 10.15am the benchmark NZSX-50 index was up 27.32 points, or 0.97 per cent, to 2834.66. Yesterday it closed down 92.1 points.
Among other stocks to rise today, NZ Refining was up 10c to $6.10, Mainfreight was up 9c to $5.89, Rakon lifted 7c to $2.08, and Auckland Airport was up 5c to $1.84.
Up 4c were Air NZ to 90, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare to $3.14, and Pike River Coal to $1.33.
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In the United States, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 2 per cent to 8691.25, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 1.3 per cent to 908.11. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 0.7 per cent at 1603.91.
The US market was led by a bounce in energy and health care stocks after oil recovered from a 16-month trough and top pharmaceutical companies posted reassuring earnings.
The session was typical of the recent volatility gripping Wall Street, with stocks swinging in a 7 per cent range and the day's final direction only becoming clear in the last minutes of trading.
- NZPA
