NZ sharemarket ends week up 2.2%

With Wall Street having a strong rebound, the S&P/NZX 50 Index kicked on and closed at 13,223.53, up 90.32 points or 0.69%.

There were 97 gainers and 43 decliners on volumes of 32.4 million share transactions worth $124.4m following the placement of $140m worth of Vista Group shares.

ACC bought 3.85m shares at a cost of $11.84m for a 5% stake in Vista, which was up 11c or 3.63% to $3.14.

The NZX index surpassed the previous highest close for the year of 13,194.07 points on Aug 21, and rose 2.2% for the week. It is now nearly 1% ahead year-to-date, and has in fact risen more than 12% since the low point of 11,775.88 points on April 7.