Strong early gains for NZ shares

The New Zealand sharemarket has gained strongly in early trading, even as top stock Telecom failed to shake off a lack of enthusiasm following Friday's annual result.

As shares rose across the board, Telecom was notable for its decline, slipping 1c early to $2.63, having dropped 3c on Friday, after a result that was seen as lacking excitement.

But with many other shares making good gains, the benchmark NZX-50 index was up 33.12 points around 10.15am to 3068.07, having lost 18.2 points on Friday.

Today's early gain comes after the major stock indexes in the United States rose to new highs for the year on Friday.

The US exuberance followed comments from Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke that the economy is indeed on the verge of recovery.

Major early gains in this country included NZ Refining up 25c to $5.45, Cavalier Corporation up 20c to $2.70, Fletcher Building up 12c to $7.86, Contact Energy up 10c to $6.30, Sky City up 8c to $3.32, and NZX up 8c to $7.75.

Shares rising 5c included Trustpower, to $7.45, Steel & Tube to $3.25, Nuplex to $2.20, Freightways to $3.13 and Ebos Group to $5.70.

Also making large early gains were the dual-listed banks, with Westpac gaining 110 to 2850, and ANZ up 100 to 2410.

A trading halt was placed on shares of insurer and fund manager Tower, at the company's request, pending an announcement.

***

In the US, stocks were also helped by a bigger-than-expected jump in home sales.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 1.7 per cent to 9505.96, and the Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 1.9 per cent to 1026.13, its highest close since October 6 last year.

The Nasdaq composite index rose 1.6 per cent to 2020.90, its highest close since October 1.

For the week, the Dow rose 2 per cent, the S&P 500 gained 2.2 per cent, and the Nasdaq added 1.8 per cent.

- NZPA