Shares up in early trade

The New Zealand sharemarket continued to gain in early trading today, following general positive sentiment around Asia and a four-day rally on United States markets.

Among leading shares, Telecom jumped 3c to $2.72, Fletcher Building rose 2c to $6.86, Contact rose 2c to $5.93 and Sky City fell 2c to $2.66.

"There was positive sentiment around Asia," said Stephen Wright at ASB Securities. The New Zealand market was in the middle of the pack in terms of reacting to Wall Street.

At 8.08am, the benchmark NZX-50 index was at 2810.486, up 8.971 points or 0.32 per cent. This followed yesterday's 37.434 point gain.

Fisher & Paykel Appliances' share price increased almost 3 per cent, up 2c to 69, Mainfreight rose 3c to $2.72, Rakon rose 1c to $1.45 and AMP rose 7c to $6.20.

Easing stocks were Tower which fell 1c to 170, Nuplex 1c to $1.68, Restaurant Brands 1c to $1.03 and Air New Zealand 1c to 90.

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In the US, stocks rallied for a fourth day on Thursday after JPMorgan's strong results fed growing optimism about the quarterly earnings season and technology shares rose in anticipation of more good news.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 95.61 points, or 1.11 per cent, to 8711.82.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 8.06 points, or 0.86 per cent, to finish at 940.74, and has climbed 7 per cent for the week so far.

The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 22.13 points, or 1.19 per cent, to 1885.03.

- NZPA