(RTTNews) - Higher opens are expected Tuesday for the New Zealand and Australia stock markets, following a strong overnight lead from Wall Street.

New Zealand’s sharemarket managed a gain on Monday despite weakness in the Australian market.

The benchmark NZX 50 index advanced 13.7 points or 0.4 percent to close at 3,220.9.

Trading volume was reported by the NZ Stock Exchange at 35.8 million shares valued at NZ$76.7 million.

Advancing stocks outnumbered decliners 54 to 31 with 31 unchanged.

Trading came on word that outdoor clothing retailer Kathmandu would undertake an initial public offering in New Zealand and Australia on October 27.

The news appeared to help the retail sector, with Micheal Hill up a penny, The Warehouse up .06, Hellaby up .05 and Hallenstein Glasson unchanged.

Among the most heavily traded stocks of the day, Auckland International Airport was down NZ$0.01, Fletcher Building was up .18, Fisher & Paykel Appliances was down .02, Goodman Property Trust was up a penny, PGG Wrightson was unchanged, Restaurant Brands NZ was up .04, SkyCity Entertainment was up .02 and Telecom Corp of NZ was down .02.

For the Australia-NZ dual-listed stocks, Telstra gained one cent, Australia and NZ Bank was, Westpac Bank was down .66, Pen Pac was down a penny and AMP was down three cents.

In Australia, the market moved lower on weakness in the financial sector.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index declined 43.6 points or 0.9 percent to 4,792.8 while the broader All Ordinaries index was down 40.8 points or 0.84 percent to 4,801.8.

Declining stocks outnumbered advancers 639 to 521 with 322 unchanged.

Trading volume was 2.47 billion shares valued at A$4.09 billion.

In the financial sector, Australia and NZ Bank was down A$0.83, Commonwealth Bank of Australia was down .77, National Australia fell .70 and Westpac Bank was down .66.

Investment bank Macquarie Group was down .96 and insurer AMP was down .20.

The major mining companies were also weaker, with BHP Billiton down .12 and rival Rio Tinto dropping .27.

In the gold sector, Newcrest Mining was up .47 and Lihir Gold was up .05.

Among the retailers, Woolworths was up .77 while Wesfarmers was down a penny, Harvey Norman was down a nickel, David Jones was down .04 and JB Hi-Fi was down .18.

In overseas trading, U.S. stocks moved sharply higher on Monday as traders reacted to generally positive corporate earnings reports. At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 96.81 points or 0.97 percent at 10.092.72, the Nasdaq Compositie Index was ahead by 19.52 points or 0.91 percent at 2,176.32and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index was up 10.21 points or 94 percent at 1,097.90.

Except for Japan’s, all of the other major Asia/Pacific region markets closed higher on Monday.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 Average declined 21.05 points or 0.21 percent to close at 10,236.51.

The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong advanced 270.56 points or 1.23 percent to 22,200.46.

In China, the Shanghai Composite index was up 61.64 points or 2.07 percent to 3,038.27.

The SENSEX/BSE 30 index in India was up 3.19 points or 0.02 percent at 17,326.01.

In Indonesia, the Jakarta Composite index gained 5.12 points or 0.20 percent to 2,510.92.

South Korea’s KOSPI/Seoul Composite index was up 8.71 points or 0.53 percent at 1,649.07.

The Taiwan Weighted Index advanced 36.22 points or 0.47 percent to 7,751.32.

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Posted in Categories: Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Releases, Stocks, USA.

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