NZ shares start with solid gains

The New Zealand sharemarket started the day with solid gains, after the Dow Jones industrial average topped the psychologically important 10,000 level for the first time in a year.

Stocks in both Europe and the United States had strong sessions on surprisingly robust company results.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was up 18.72 points to a year high 3205.21, having gained 17 points yesterday.

Mainfreight was up 9c to $5.46, Fletcher Building added 9c to $8.01, NZ Refining added 5c to $5.05, Sky TV added 3c to $4.86, Trustpower added 3c to $7.50, and Sky City was up 3c to $3.30.

Contact Energy dropped 3c early to $6.03, Freightways slipped 2c to $3.10, and Port of Tauranga was down 2c to $6.98, while Telecom was unchanged on $2.62.

Dual-listed bank Westpac was up 55c to $33.35 and ANZ was up 45c to $30.95.

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In the United States, strong results from JPMorgan Chase and Intel bolstered analysts' optimism over the earnings season that was picking up pace, with shares also helped by better-than-expected retail sales and a weakening greenback.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 1.5 per cent to 10,015.86, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 1.8 per cent to 1092.02, and the Nasdaq Composite Index put on 1.5 per cent to 2172.23.

The Dow's rise above 10,000 is a symbol of how far the market has come since last year when investors fled collapsing financial markets as the economic outlook soured.

The index is up 52.9 per cent since the 12-year closing low of early March, but is still down 29.3 per cent from its October 2007 record close.

- NZPA