The New Zealand sharemarket extended its run of gains to a sixth consecutive trading day, though there was little corporate news to trade on until SkyTV revealed plans to buy the outside broadcast business it currently uses.
The benchmark NZX-50 index closed up 21.316 points, or 0.714 percent, at 3005.249. The market is continuing to pull away from an 11-month low reached in intraday trading last Friday.
Turnover today was worth $71.36 million. There were 58 rises and 24 falls among the 111 stocks traded.
SkyTV rose 8c to $4.72 after saying it was buying Prime Media's New Zealand outside broadcast business for a net $NZ13.5m.
Telecom rose 5c to $1.92 on a day in which it agreed to pay $1.6m in a settlement with the Commerce Commission over breaches of separation undertakings by its wholesale division.
"The market is slightly firmer in reaction to the offshore markets being relatively firm last night but we are lacking any stock specific news," said Grant Williamson, director at Hamilton, Hindin, Greene said.
Fletcher Building ended unchanged at $7.75 after earlier being weaker and Contact Energy ended down 3c at $5.85.
Postie Plus Group rose 2c to 32c on a day in which it was revealed that shareholder Jan Cameron has increased her stake to just under 20 percent.
Investment company Hellaby Holdings continued its rise of recent days, rising 5c to $1.75, on top of an 18c rise over the previous two days after the company said its core debt was down 51 percent.
ING Medical Property rose 2c to $1.22 after reporting its portfolio has risen in value. AMP Office Trust rose 1c to 72c, Kiwi Income Property Trust rose 1c to 93c and ING Property was unchanged at 68c.
Other stocks to gain included Goodman Fielder, up 7c to $1.69, Mainfreight, up 8c to $6.30, NZ Refining, up 10c to $3.10, Sanford, up 10c to $4.10, Ryman Healthcare, up 2c to $2 and Allied Farmers, up 0.5c to 3.5c.
In the US, Wall Street rose for a third straight day as investors were encouraged to see jobless claims fall and a handful of large retailers report solid sales.
Stocks have regained their footing after a slew of poor data had raised fears of a double-dip recession. But low market volume suggested investors are still sceptical, and few expect to see a sustained rally.
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 1.2 percent at 10,138.99, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 0.9 percent at 1070.25, and the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 0.7 percent at 2175.40.
