The sharemarket lifted strongly in early trading after Wall Street jumped more than 3 per cent.
Equities were given a boost when the Federal Reserve said it would add up to US$200 billion ($253 billion) to strained credit markets in a co-ordinated effort with other central banks.
Thatgave the the Dow and Nasdaq their biggest daily percentage gains since March 2003 and the S&P its best daily advance since October 2002.
The NZSX-50 Index more than regained yesterday's 0.8 per cent fall, rising 37 points to 3558 in the first minutes of trading today. The index yesterday was only 20 points from a 16 month low.
Auckland International Airport shares were up 7c to 235 after the Canadian Pension Plan got a fillip to its partial bid from Infratil which surprisingly decided to quit its 3.3 per cent stake.
Infratil shares were up 7c to 223. Infratil has lost a quarter of its value in the last quarter but will replace Vector in the top 10 index.
Australian finance sector stocks listed here got a big boost from the liquidity injection news. Westpac was up 77 to 2522, ANZ 95 to 2395 and AMP 16c to 806.
Market leader Telecom actually fell 1c to 395 but No 2 Fletcher Building shot up 25c to 925 and Contact Energy was up 4c to 825.
Air NZ was up 3c to 143 despite being replaced in the top 15 index by Nuplex, which was untraded.
Hard-hit Pumpkin Patch rose 5c from a four year low to 174. Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rose 7c to 302 despite the rise of the New Zealand dollar back over US80c. Fellow exporter Rakon also rose 7c, to 233.
Newly listed Diligent Board Member Services Inc fell 11c to a new low of 54c. Shareholders paid 100 in an IPO late last year. Freightway was up 11c to 325.
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The Dow Jones industrial average surged 416.66 points, or 3.55 per cent, to end unofficially at 12,156.81. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index shot up 47.28 points, or 3.71 per cent, to finish unofficially at 1320.65 and the Nasdaq Composite Index soared 86.42 points, or 3.98 per cent, to close unofficially at 2255.76.
