3 Sep 2013

Market awaiting key US news

7:25 pm on 3 September 2013

The benchmark Top 50 has risen 10 points to 4607 while the market awaits key United States news.

Craigs Investment Partners wealth research head Mark Lister says the market is awaiting fresh direction from events in the US, which has its jobs report coming out later this month. That report is a precursor to the Federal Reserve meeting later this month.

However, one stock that has been moving "quite a bit lately" is Diligent, Mr Lister says. It had fallen from May until about a week ago, going as low as $4.50.

"But it's rebounded a bit over the last few days, having seen some bargain hunting," he says.

"Sky TV has been very strong. They're paying a dividend soon, so you might be seeing a few people look to buy the stock going into that dividend payment period so they can collect the dividend."

Diligent shares rose 23 cents to $5.05 on Tuesday, while Sky TV share climbed 16 cents to $5.90.

Dollar rises against US

The New Zealand dollar rose nearly half a US cent to be US78.30 cents just after 5pm after the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) left its official cash rate unchanged as expected.

Bank of New Zealand head of wealth research Mike Jones says Australia's central bank may not cut rates as much as expected.

"They're sounding a little bit more upbeat about the global outlook and a little bit less concerned with Australian economic growth and, as a result, that urgency to cut rates no longer appears to be evident in the statement and so the Aussie dollar has rallied off the back of it, dragging the kiwi dollar with it," Mr Jones says.

Against the Australian dollar, the kiwi was down about 15 basis points to 86.67 cents.