The New Zealand sharemarket started the day strongly, following big gains by equities in the United States led by energy stocks that were beaten down the day before.
Yesterday the benchmark NZX-50 closed down 35.9 points as it faltered in a bid to break away from last week's 10-month low, but today the index was up 26.96 points to 3045.85 around 10.15am.
Contact Energy lifted 8c in early trade today after a 17c fall yesterday, while Fletcher Building gained 7c to 827, more than reversing a 2c fall the previous session. Another market leader, Telecom, was up 1c to 187 after repeating its record low of 185 during trading yesterday.
Port of Tauranga was up 6c to 670, Mainfreight lifted 5c to 625, Hallenstein Glasson gained 5c to 335, Sky City was up 4c to 292, and Freightways was up 4c to 299.
NZ Oil&Gas lifted 3c to 139, Auckland Airport was up 3c to 188, Sky TV gained 2c to 464, Ryman Healthcare gained 2c to 214, Nuplex was up 2c to 295 and Fisher&Paykel Healthcare lifted 2c to 320.
NZX dropped 2c to 159 after announcing five large electricity generators had decided to sign a contract with the Australian Securities Exchange to undertake derivative market trading activities in this country.
In the US stocks rallied as investors rushed back into beaten-down shares, led by energy, which bore the brunt of the sell-off a day earlier.
Shares of Halliburton rose 12 percent after executives said the offshore oil industry had plenty of work even as the Obama administration imposed a six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 2.3 percent to 10,249.54, the Standard&Poor's 500 Index rose 2.6 percent to 1098.38, and the Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 2.6 percent to 2281.07.