The New Zealand sharemarket was little changed on a day in which the strength of the Australian economy was a talking point while investors waited for data on the struggling United States economy on Friday. The benchmark NZX-50 index closed up 1.039 points, or 0.032%, at 3236.081, after opening up around 2.24 points. Several times in the past few weeks the index has pushed towards, but failed to overtake, the intraday high near 3253 points, reached on September 21 - the highest level since early May. US stocks were mixed overnight as that market took a breather ahead of US jobs data later this week. The NZ dollar fell sharply against the Australian dollar today on news that Australia added a much greater than expected 49,500 jobs in September. "This employment report is very encouraging once again for the (Australian) growth outlook over the fourth quarter of 2010, as it is further evidence that the household sector is moving back into the economy's driving seat," TD Securities said. Michael Hill rose 3c, or 4.41%, to 71 after reporting total sales for the three months to the end of September rose 12.8 percent from a year earlier. Australian same store sales lifted 11.5%, with all store sales up 11.1%.

Source