Strong start for NZ sharemarket

The New Zealand sharemarket started the day strongly, following big gains by equities in the United States led by energy stocks that were beaten down the day before.

Yesterday the benchmark NZX-50 closed down 35.9 points as it faltered in a bid to break away from last week's 10-month low, but today the index was up 26.96 points to 3045.85 around 10.15am.

Contact Energy lifted 8c in early trade today after a 17c fall yesterday, while Fletcher Building gained 7c to $8.27, more than reversing a 2c fall the previous session. Another market leader, Telecom, was up 1c to $1.87 after repeating its record low of 185 during trading yesterday.

Port of Tauranga was up 6c to $6.70, Mainfreight lifted 5c to $6.25, Hallenstein Glasson gained 5c to $3.35, Sky City was up 4c to $2.92, and Freightways was up 4c to $2.99.

NZ Oil & Gas lifted 3c to $1.39, Auckland Airport was up 3c to $1.88, Sky TV gained 2c to $4.64, Ryman Healthcare gained 2c to $2.14, Nuplex was up 2c to $2.95 and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare lifted 2c to $3.20.

NZX dropped 2c to $1.59 after announcing five large electricity generators had decided to sign a contract with the Australian Securities Exchange to undertake derivative market trading activities in this country.

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In the US stocks rallied as investors rushed back into beaten-down shares, led by energy, which bore the brunt of the sell-off a day earlier.

Shares of Halliburton rose 12 per cent after executives said the offshore oil industry had plenty of work even as the Obama administration imposed a six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 2.3 per cent to 10,249.54, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 2.6 per cent to 1098.38, and the Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 2.6 per cent to 2281.07.

- NZPA