The New Zealand sharemarket rose for a fourth consecutive day, keeping faith with a similar rally on Wall Street.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed up 30.843 points, or 1.169 per cent, to 2668.744. Volume was worth $74.93 million and there were 49 rises and 22 falls.
"It isholding the gains albeit on low volume," said ABN Amro Craigs senior dealer Bryon Burke.
"It is encouraging to see a little bit of volatility going out of the market," he said.
Telecom was up 2c to 238 on top of an 8c rise yesterday, while Contact Energy added 6c to 680 after gaining 12c yesterday.
Fletcher Building rose 13c to 570. Chairman Roderick Deane expressed confidence in the company's chief executive after leaks about internal debate about its Formica purchase last year.
Mainfreight added to its 28c to 455.
Following a two-day battering, Nuplex rose 5c to 345.
Pike River Coal rose 2c to 101 on a day Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee formally opened the company's mine.
Cavalier rose 5c to 215, Auckland Airport rose 1c to 170 and Air NZ rose 1c to 86.
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare eased 4c to 300 and ANZ eased 8c to 1670. Fisher & Paykel Appliances rose 5c to 137.
SkyCity rose 15c to 315. Ebos rose 5c to 415 and PGG Wrightson rose 4c to 165. Vector rose 6c to 200 and Tower rose 8c to 153. Rakon rose 13c to 132.
US stocks climbed on Wednesday 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.
The Dow has risen 15.6 per cent in the last four days, the largest four-day percentage gain since 1932.
The US government's recent move to prop up Citigroup may have helped investors overlook more economic data that continued to show a weakening economy, market participants said.
The Dow Jones industrial average shot up 247.14 points, or 2.91 per cent, to 8,726.61. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 30.29 points, or 3.53 per cent, to 887.68. The Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 67.37 points, or 4.60 per cent, to 1,532.10.
The S&P's four-day advance is its best run since May.
