KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket had a positive start to the day today in the wake of news of the US Federal Reserve's surprisingly big interest-rate cut this morning.
In the opening minutes of trading this morning the benchmark NZX-50 index gained 14.15 points, or 0.588 per cent, from 2695.084 to 2710.938.
Fletcher Building led the way gaining 15c to $6.08.
Fisher & Paykel Appliances gained 2c, or 1.56 per cent, to $1.30, Nuplex increased 6c to $3.04 and Michael Hill International rose 1c to 62.
Top stock Telecom was again heavily traded and made 2c to $2.42.
Stocks not helped this morning were Property for Industry, which lost 1c to $1.07, Hellaby Holdings lost 1c to $1.14 and Steel & Tube Holdings lost 2c to $2.80.
Pike River Coal also eased 1c to 90.
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In the United States Wall Street stocks accelerated gains on Tuesday after the Federal Reserve's surprisingly big interest-rate cut to zero to 0.25 per cent and financials surged on optimism inspired by a smaller-than-feared loss from Goldman Sachs.
"The rate cut was definitely more than a lot of people were expecting and that's really helping the market here, but the big takeaway here is Bernanke's going back out into the market and trying to loosen things up in credit," said Jocelynn Drake, market analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 376.42 points, or 4.40 per cent, at 8940.95. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index climbed 43.10 points, or 4.96 per cent, to 911.67. The Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 77.90 points, or 5.16 per cent, to 1586.24.
- NZPA
