KEY POINTS:
The sharemarket was led up by the top three stocks in early trading today.
On Wall Street, United States stocks rose in light trading, pushing the S&P 500 index to its highest close since January, as a pullback in oil prices eased concerns about inflation.
Yesterday, the three top NZ stocks fell sharply and today they reversed some, or all, of those losses.
Telecom was up 8c to 390, Contact Energy was up 6c to 883 and Fletcher Building, which lost 17c yesterday, was up 4c to 809.
The NZSX-50 benchmark index was up 15 points to 3628 at 10.20am.
Rakon, which announced the sale of a United Kingdom asset, was up 7c to 348.
TrustPower, up 22c yesterday after reporting a 4 per cent fall in annual net profit but a steady financial position, rose another 6c to 848.
Auckland Airport was up 2c to 226 while Sky TV was up 4c to 460.
Postie Plus fell another 2c to 42c amid concerns it will suffer as much, or more, than other retailers in the current environment.
Fellow retailer Smiths City was down 1c to 44c.
Dominion Finance, under pressure lately after reporting very low reinvestment rates, was up 2c to 83c while Wakefield Hospital was up 15c to 800.
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The US markets posted solid gains today despite Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke warning that America's financial markets remained in a fragile state.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 93.87 points or 0.73 per cent at 12,992.25 as the markets ceased trading.
The Nasdaq composite, a barometer for the technology sector, gained 37.03 points or 1.48 per cent to 2533.73 while the Standard & Poor's 500 broad-market index added 14.86 points or 1.05 per cent to a preliminary close of 1423.52.
Bernanke, in a speech in Chicago, urged banks to boost their capital cushions and improve their risk management policies amid a lingering credit squeeze that has ended an era of easy credit.
- NZPA
