The stars have aligned for Contact Energy - producing an increase in profit to $234m and a second dividend increase for shareholders in two years.

Contact Energy will today formally open its latest geothermal power station, likely to be the last big plant built this decade.

The Treasury would have liked more "Mum and Dad" small investors to have bought shares in electricity generators Mighty River Power and Meridian Energy.

Over the past couple of weeks, households have been receiving nasty surprises in the mail.

Contact Energy reported a 5 per cent improvement in earnings with improved sales and lower wholesale electricity prices.

NZ shares were mixed yesterday as investors cast forward to next month's earnings season, and as regional markets mulled this week's Federal Reserve meeting.

If Meridian Energy had already floated, it's a fair bet that its share price would have dropped after the Opposition unveiled its electricity policy a week ago.

Contact's share price dropped this morning, partly in response to uncertainty over the future of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter.

Contact Energy says it's "not fixated" on the number of redundancies it will make but is still on track to shed 10 per cent of staff.

New Zealand shares rose on the first trading day of 2013, following gains on Wall Street, as investors drove up companies that have featured on broker lists for 2013, such as PGG Wrightson and Ryman Healthcare.

Meridian Energy is not a private enterprise but in negotiation with Rio Tinto it must act like one. If it can get a better power price elsewhere, Tiwai smelter must go.

Investment adviser Mark Lister with some shares to consider while you wait for the Mighty River float...

Full year profits at our biggest listed energy company are up 27 per cent.

What are our top CEO's getting paid? Last year pay for NZ's bosses fell for the first time in eight years. See the full list here.