For the third day in a row the New Zealand sharemarket has started well, buoyed by optimism on world markets.
The question is whether it will be able to hold on to the good start for the rest of the day, rather than running out of steam, as it did on Tuesday, or going into a sharp decline, which happened yesterday.
Around 10.15am today, the benchmark NZX-50 market was up 17.36 points to 3432.28, after closing down 26.1 points yesterday to below 3415, the lowest level in three months.
Fletcher Building led the way in early trading today, lifting 8c to 850, Contact Energy was up 5c to 540, Mainfreight gained 5c to 1010, The Warehouse was up 4c to 345, Trustpower added 4c to 725, Sky City lifted 4c to 360, and Telecom edged up 1c to 243.5c.
In the United States, the end of trading marked the best three-day run in the past three months after the Greek parliament approved austerity measures to avoid defaulting on its debt.
Optimism about the plan's approval helped the stock market recoup some of its losses of the past two months.
"The whole scary month of June has been healed with these nice three days we've had," said Wayne Kaufman, chief market analyst at John Thomas Financial in New York. "That is a pretty good indication that you've got a floor under the market now."
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.6 percent to 12,261.42, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 0.8 percent to 1307.41, and the Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.4 percent to 2740.49.
