New Zealand shares rose, paced by Telecom, Contact Energy and NZ Refining in the lead up to an earnings season some analysts say will beat estimates.
The NZX 50 Index rose 5.81 points, or 0.16 per cent, to 3577.79. Within the index, 20 stocks rose, 18 fell and 12 were unchanged. Turnover was $96 million.
"The interesting thing about earnings season is that people expect the environment to be a bit slow and that is fine when expectations are low, but as share prices creep higher the bar goes up," said Mark Lister, head of private wealth research at Craigs Investment Partners.
The NZX 50 is near a three-month high heading into earnings season. New Zealand's listed companies will lift normalised profit by a median 7 per cent, based on Forsyth Barr's forecasts for 43 companies that it follows. Sales are expected to rise by 3.8 per cent.
Telecom, the largest company on the exchange, rose 1.1 per cent to $2.69. Contact Energy, the biggest power company on the NZX 50, climbed 0.6 per cent to $4.83.
New Zealand Refining, which operates the nation's only oil refinery, 0.8 per cent to $2.37. The refinery's fees improved to an average $US4.92 a barrel in the months of May and June, up from $US4.01 in the previous two months. That's still well below the average margins achieved at the refinery last year, when they averaged $US6.11 a barrel.
Shares in New Zealand Oil & Gas were unchanged on 82 cents.
The company will receive a $5 million payment from the receivers of Pike Rive Coal after it was sold to Solid Energy in May. It expects a further payment of up to $2.5 million before the end of the year.
The gainers were led by OceanaGold, which operates the Macraes gold mine near Dunedin, up 3.6 per cent to $2.87.
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