Wellington, Nov 27 NZPA - The New Zealand sharemarket started the trading day strongly, after a climb in United States stocks.

Among the market leaders in this country, Telecom was up 6c early to 242 on top of an 8c rise yesterday, while Contact Energy added 10c to 684 after gaining 12c yesterday.

Fletcher Building, which yesterday said it was pulling the plug on a deal to buy as Australian steel product company because of market volatility, recovered its losses from yesterday in early trading with an 11c gain to 568.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZSX-50 index was up 19.86 points, or 0.75 percent, to 2657.77. Yesterday it ended the day with a modest 3-point gain.

Mainfreight added to its 7c gain yesterday, rising 8c early to 435. Yesterday chairman Bruce Plested received a Beacon award and praise from the NZ Shareholders' Association.

Following a two-day battering, after it predicted a fall in ebitda, resins and chemicals company Nuplex had a small turn around early today with its shares lifting 5c to 345.

Stocks adding 3c early included Pike River Coal, to 102, Rakon to 122, Ryman Healthcare to 138, and The Warehouse to 353.

Steel & Tube was up 5c to 278, with Tower also gaining 5c, to 150.

Sanford was down 1c to 534, after losing 5c yesterday even though it posted a strong annual profit. The company gave little guidance on the outlook.

US stocks rose as investors snapped up tech stocks, trading near their cheapest levels in five years, and renewed hopes of a General Motors bailout helped investors shrug off data depicting a worsening global economic downturn.

Unofficially, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 2.9 percent, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index climbed 3.5 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 4.6 percent.

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