Investors overnight welcomed renewed efforts by European Union leaders to check the escalation of the sovereign debt crisis.

Trading in NZX dairy futures passed the 10,000-lot mark today for the first time. NZX says this milestone means the market is well on the way towards reaching critical mass.

Air New Zealand, wants to lift annual profit by $110 million by 2015 and is picking a better performance than the latest earnings performance.

Equities declined on world sharemarkets overnight after a downward revision to the pace of US economic expansion.