New Zealand's stock exchange reflected a global settling in most major markets following a massive week of volatility which wiped hundreds of billions of dollars off company values around the world.
Stocks in the United States and United Kingdom rallied for a third consecutive day as concern eased Japan could suffer a nuclear meltdown, underpinned in the US after AT&T agreed to buy T-Mobile USA for $US39 billion ($NZ52.9 billion), Forsyth Barr broker Suzanne Kinnaird said.
"Stock across the United Kingdom climbed for a third day as investors speculated that the declines in equities were overdone, and Japan made progress in cooling the nuclear reactors," Ms Kinnaird said.
The Australian All Ords, US Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq, UK's FTSE 100 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng all began yesterday in positive; ranging up between 0.13%-1.5%, while Japan's Nikkei was closed for a national holiday yesterday.
The New Zealand exchange started the day's trading up and at 5pm the NZX-50 closed up 0.5% at 3365.
Craigs Investment Partners broker Peter McIntyre said while the New Zealand exchange had "felt the ripples" of last week's world-wide volatility, there was not "the broad and massive sell-off" as seen overseas.
Also affecting the more stable New Zealand activity was most companies being in the process of going ex-dividend and investors being reluctant to sell at this period.
Mr McIntyre said Asian markets recovered from last week as investors "scooped up beaten down stocks" in the wake of heavy losses, but in South Korea, for example, the gains were limited as investors remained "wary, amid the military action centred on Libya".
"The [global] markets don't have a long concentration span and will be turning to [issues in] Libya, the price of oil and merger and acquisition activity elsewhere," Mr McIntyre said.
