NZ market: Fletcher Building rallies

File photo / NZ Herald

The New Zealand sharemarket turned around a weak start to close higher today but trading was quiet as the information about the local and international economy remained a potpourri.

The benchmark NZX-50 index closed up 16.623 points, or 0.52 per cent, at 3212.256 after initially opening down 6.16 points. There were 46 rises and 24 falls among the 113 stocks traded. The Australian sharemarket surged in afternoon trading.

This week's downgrade in economic projections by the Reserve Bank is being weighed by investors ahead of next week's second quarter gross domestic product report.

The NZ dollar also rose back to US73c today, recovering quickly from a knock lower on the Reserve Bank's bleaker view of the economy.

IG Markets said this afternoon's strength in the Australian market was a bit of a surprise and may indicate an underlying change in sentiment and psychology.

Fletcher Building resumed its rally, rising 14c to 847, with executives back from an international roadshow saying there were a lot of questions about the Christchurch earthquake.

Cavalier Carpets rose 9c to 300 and NZ Refining 40c to 380. Rakon rose 6c to 123 and NZOG 6c to 131. Ebos rose 23c to 700 and Guinness Peat Group 2c to 67.

The Warehouse rose 5c to 380, Kathmandu 1c to 165 and Hallenstein Glasson 1c to 400.

Contact Energy lost 5c to 575, Sanford fell 7c to 396 and NZX fell 1c to 161.

TrustPower fell 5c to 739 on a day it said it was raising $100 million in a retail bond offer.

Steel & Tube fell 10c to 240. OceanaGold fell 23c to 508.

In the United States, stocks were little changed as mixed economic data and a cautious forecast from economic bellwether FedEx kept the market locked in its recent tight trading range.

Shares in FedEx Corp fell 3.7 per cent to US$82.72 after the company, seen as a proxy for economic demand because of the wide swath of industries it serves, forecast quarterly profit below Wall Street's expectations and warned the recovery may slow.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.2 per cent to 10,594.83, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 0.04 per cent to 1124.67, and the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.1 per cent to 2303.25.

- NZPA