The New Zealand market rose today, with a 12c lift in heavyweight Air New Zealand on news the national carrier's net profit of $71 million was ahead of expectations.

The NZX50 index was up 0.03 per cent or 1.175 points to 3629.56. Within the index, 22 stocks rose, 20 fell and eight were unchanged.

Craigs Investment Partners adviser Stuart Hardie said the market was pretty much flat.

"It was in line with the mixed bag of offshore markets - the European markets were down, the American market was pretty much flat so all things considered we're in about the middle on the fence," Hardie said.

"That is not too bad considering the Australian market has given up almost 1 per cent today predominantly on the resource sector being down heavily on iron ore prices."

Air New Zealand rose 13.4 per cent to $1.02.

"The net profit was down but the market quite liked it on the face of it because their outlook was pretty positive," Hardie said.

Nuplex Industries, the industrial chemicals and resins maker, was up 5.4 per cent to $2.95. Retirement villages developer and operator Ryman Healthcare rose 2.7 per cent to $3.82.

New Zealand Refining rose 2.3 per cent to $2.67. Fisher & Paykel Appliances, the whiteware manufacturer and exporter, rose 2.2 per cent to 71c. Xero was up 2.1 per cent to $4.45.

EBOS Group rose 1.2 per cent to $8.15. Telstra Corp was up 1.2 per cent to $4.95.

Australian food ingredient maker Goodman Fielder led the declining stocks with a 3 per cent fall to 64c. Rural services company PGG Wrightson was down 2.8 per cent to 35c. OceanaGold was down 2.5 per cent to $3.09.

Carpet maker Cavalier fell 1.7 per cent to $1.75. Insurer Tower was down 1.6 per cent to $1.82. Westpac Bank fell 1.4 per cent to $31.70.

Australian wealth manager AMP was down 1.4 per cent to $5.72. Restaurant Brands, the operator of fast food chains KFC and Pizza Hut, was down 1.3 per cent to $2.25.

SkyCity Entertainment was down 1.1 per cent to $3.69. TrustPower was down 1 per cent to $7.82. Freightways fell 1 per cent to $4.00.

Hardie said investors were weighing up what they expected to happen at the Jackson Hole summit in Wyoming on Friday evening where US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke will be speaking, expected to indicate whether another round of quantitative easing was likely.

- © Fairfax NZ News