NZ shares rise as upbeat Wall St bolsters A2, blue chips

The S&P/NZX 50 index increased 11.45 points, or 0.1 percent, to 8,673.82. Within the index, 16 stocks gained, 25 fell and nine were unchanged. Turnover was $136.3 million.

Stocks across Asia largely followed Wall Street's cues as the outlook for US interest rates and trade tensions between the US and China overshadow domestic news. Speeches by Federal Reserve vice chair Richard Clarida and chair Jerome Powell, and a meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 leaders' meeting are keenly awaited.

"There's no shortage of big stories and key events overseas - the US is highly important as always," said Mark Lister, head of private wealth research at Craigs Investment Partners. "People are very nervous about those couple of events because they could go very well in terms of market reaction or they could not go so well."

A2 led the market higher, up 2 percent to $10.40 on lighter volumes than usual, while Ryman Healthcare rose 1.6 percent to $11.21 on average volumes.