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Weak opens are expected for the New Zealand and Australia sharemarkets on Friday, after U.S. stocks moved sharply lower overnight. Wall Street reacted negatively to data on sharply lower home sales and skepticism over the Obama economic stimulus plan.

Word of a bigger-than-expected interest rate reduction from the central bank helped send New Zealand stocks higher on Thursday.

Reserve Bank of NZ Governor Alan Bollard announced the bank cut its Official Cash Rate by 150 basis points to 3.50 percent, an all-time low for the OCR.

The resulting rally ran out of steam in later trading, however. The benchmark NZX 50 index ended at 2,770.12, up 22.22 points or 0.81 percent, but well off its highs.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners 65 to 23.

The New Zealand Stock Exchange posted trading volume of 81.3 million shares valued at NZ$127.3 million shares.

Among the session`s most heavily traded stocks, Auckland International Airport fell one cent, AMP NZ was unchanged, Contact Energy dropped .05, Fletcher Building was up .04, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare advanced one cent, Freightways rose .07, Goodman Properties was down a penny, Guinness Peat was also down .01, ING Properties was up a penny, Pumpkin Patch was down .03, Ryman Healthcare advanced .04, SkyCity Entertainment Group was up .01,Sky Network TV rose .05 and Telecom Corp of NZ was up .06.

Shares of the NZ Exchange, which announced the sale of its TZ1 Registry to Markit Group for shares worth NZ$66.55 million, advanced .62 or nearly 13 percent.

In Australia, a round of bargain hunting helped the market close higher for a third straight day.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index gained 30.7 points or 0.88 percent to 3,526.2 while the broader All Ordinaries index was up 26.2 points or 0.76 percent to 3,461.3.

Market turnover was 1.23 billion shares valued at just over A$4.5 billion.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers 446 to 414 with 295 closing unchanged.

In the key resources sector, global mining leader BHP Billiton was up .80 or 2.7 percent while rival Rio Tinto was down .24.
In the oil sector, Woodside Petroleum was up .06, Oil Search was up a penny and Santos was up .06.

Lower gold prices sent the gold stocks downward. Lihir Gold dropped .12 or nearly 4 percent, Newmont Mining was down .29 or 4.8 percent and Newcrest Mining fell $1.50 or 4.7 percent.

Among the big banks, Australia and NZ Banking Corp was up .06, Commonwealth Bank of Australia gained .59, National Australia Bank rose .66 and Westpac was up .11.

U.S. stocks appeared headed toward a sharply lower close on Thursday. About 45 minutes before the closing bell on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 176.03 points or 2.10 percent at 8,199.42, the Nasdaq Composite index was down 40.36 points or 2.59 percent at 1,517.98 and the Standard and Poor`s 500 index is down 22.54 points or 2.58 percent at 851.55

While China`s market remained closed in observance of the Lunar New Year, most other markets in the Asia/Pacific region moved higher on Thursday.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 Average posted a gain of 144.95 points or 1.79 percent to 8,251.24.

Hong Kong`s Hang Seng index rose 575.83 points or 4.58 percent to 13,154.43.

In India, the BSE 30 Index was down 21.19 points or 0.23 percent to 9,236.28.

Indonesia`s Jakarta Composite index was up 3.20 points or 0.24 percent to 1,324.65.

The KOSPI/Seoul Composite index in South Korea advanced 8,58 points or 0.74 percent to 1,166.56.

The Taiwan Weighted Index gained 5.36 points or 0.13 percent to 4,247.97.
 

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