Wellington, March 18 NZPA - The New Zealand sharemarket rose more than 1 percent in early trade after United States stocks surged on some unexpected good housing news.

Among leading stocks Fletcher Building gained 21c early, on top of a 15c gain yesterday, to 591. Contact Energy gained 13c to 588, while Telecom was up 3c to 238, on top of yesterday's 7c gain.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZSX-50 index was up 30.2 points, or 1.2 percent, to 2594.92, having risen 20.4 points yesterday and 20.9 points on Monday.

Dual-listed bank Westpac was up 40c early to 2210, while ANZ gained 16c to 1791.

Freightways was up 5c to 290, Sky City gained 5c to 280, and Sky TV rose 3c to 380. Fisher & Paykel Appliances dropped 4c early to 42.

In the US, stocks were boosted by an unexpected leap in housing starts which pushed Home Depot and other retailers higher, while bullish comments from a broker on Cisco Systems helped technology shares rebound.

A nearly 4 percent rise in US crude oil futures boosted energy shares.

"Investors are starting to get a sense that things are stabilizing. They're not getting any worse," said Terry Morris, a portfolio manager with National Penn Investors Trust Company in Reading, Pennsylvania.

Preliminary closing figures showed the Dow Jones industrial average up 2.5 percent, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index up 3.2 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite Index up 4.1 percent.

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