13 Aug 2009

NZ market higher at close

9:57 pm on 13 August 2009

The New Zealand share market closed up 49 points, or 1.5%, to 3128 on turnover of $115 million.

Top stocks were higher on Thursday, with Telecom up 4 cents at $2.80, Contact Energy rising 4c to $6.29 and Fletcher Building soaring 32c to $7.90.

Sky City Entertainment Group gained 9c to $3.44.

AMP NZ Office Trust was up 2c to 83c after its profit rose 15% to $59.2 million.

But Telstra fell 10c to $4.40 after its full year profit rose 10% to more than $A4 billion.

The Australian market surged more than 2% higher on the back of renewed optimism in the US overnight.

The US Federal Reserve made comments that have been widely interpreted as a declaration by them that they believe the United States has reached the bottom of its recession, and will soon start recovering, the ABC website reports.

The local market responded, with a 2.1% gain on the All Ordinaries to reach 4,437, and the ASX 200 rising 93 points to 4,436.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei finished up 0.8% at 10,517.