(RTTNews) - Mixed opens are expected Wednesday for the New Zealand and Australia stock markets, following losses on Wall Street. U.S. stocks moved lower in reaction to mixed economic data and earnings reports.

A strong lead from Wall Street helped boost the New Zealand sharemarket on Tuesday.

The benchmark NZX-50 index closed with a gain of 31.6 points or 0.9 percent at 3,252.6.

Trading volume was reported by the NZ Stock Exchange at 40.7 million shares valued at NZ$87.3 million.

Advancing stocks outnumbered decliners 54 to 20 with 38 unchanged.

Among the session’s most heavily traded stocks, Auckland International Airport was unchanged, Fletcher Building was up NZ$0.10, Fisher & Paykel Appliances was unchanged, Goodman Property Trust was down a penny, Kiwi Income Property Trust was unchanged, PGG Wrightson was down .01, Rakon was up a nickel, SkyCity Entertainment was up .14 and Telecom Corp of NZ was up .04.

For the Australia-NZ dual-listed stocks, Telstra was unchanged, Australia and NZ Bank was up .06, Westpac Bank was up .18, Pan Pac was up 1.5 cents and AMP was up .14.

Across the Tasman, rising commodity prices boosted Australia’s resources sector, taking the rest of the market along with it.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 Index advanced 53.4 points or 1.1 percent to close at 4,846.2 while the broader All Ordinaries index was up 51.0 points or 1.1 percent at 4,852.8.

Trading volume was 3.22 billion shares valued at $5.76 billion.

There were 731 stocks closing higher, 455 were lower and 325 unchanged.

In the mining sector, global leader BHP Billiton was up A$0.83 while rival Rio Tinto advanced $2.15, Fortescue Metals was up a penny and OZ Minerals was up a nickel.

The continued rise in gold prices boosted the gold miners. Lihir Gold added .04, Newcrest Mining was up .16, while Newmont Mining was down two cents.

Energy sector stocks were mixed, with Woodside Petroleum up .07 and Santos up .39 while Oil Search declined .49.

The big banks were also stronger, with Australia and NZ Banking Group up .06, Commonwealth Bank of Australia was up .39, National Australia Bank gained .42 and Westpac added .18.

For the retailers, Woolworths was down .24, Wesfarmers was up .21, David Jones was down .07 and Harvey Norman dropped six cents.

In overseas trading, U.S. stocks retreated on Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed with a loss of 50.71 points or 0.50 percent at 10,041.48, the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 12,85 points or 0.59 percent to 2,163.47 and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index was down 6.85 points or 0.62 percent to 1,091.06.

In other Asia/Pacific region trading on Tuesday, Japan’s Nikkei 225 Average closed up by 100.33 points or 0.98 percent at 10,336.84.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index was up 184.50 points or 0.83 percent at 22.384.96.

China’s Shanghai Composite index advanced 46.18 points or 1.52 percent to 3,084.45.

In India, the SENSEX/BSE 30 index closed down 103.00 points or 0.59 percent at 17.223.01.

The Jakarta Composite index in Indonesia was down 18.71 points or 0.74 percent at 2,502.22.

South Korea’s KOSPI/Seoul Composite index was up 10.08 points or 0.61 percent at 1,659.15.

The Taiwan Weighted Index was up 2.20 points or 0.03 percent at 7,753.52.

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

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