NZPA
Monday 29th August 2011 |
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The New Zealand sharemarket rose modestly in the first few minutes of trade for the new week, in its first session since an eagerly-awaited speech by US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke.
The speech, early on Saturday (NZT), raised hopes of more stimulus for the United States economy at the US central bank's September meeting.
Initially US stocks fell after Bernanke stopped short of describing detailed plans to strengthen the ailing economy.
But the market turned higher, led by technology shares, as investors concluded the Fed was leaving the door open for action even though many traders believe it has limited power to pull the economy out of a rut.
Around 10.20am today the benchmark NZX-50 index was up 8.22 points to 3303.85, having closed down 5.9 points on Friday.
Port of Tauranga was up 18c to 948 after announcing the Mediterranean Shipping Co planned to start a new service with Tauranga its only port call in this country.
Ebos Group was up 10c to 680, Freightways lifted 5c to 320, Contact Energy gained 4c to 525, Nuplex added 3c to 267, and Fletcher Building edged up 1c to 773, while Telecom was unchanged early at 274.
The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 1.2 percent at 11,284.54, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 1.5 percent to finish at 1176.80, and the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 2.5 percent at 2479.85.
For the week, the Dow rose 4.3 percent, the S&P gained 4.7 percent and the Nasdaq rose 5.9 percent.
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