The NZX50 rose 18 points (0.5%) on Tuesday to close at 3745 points on turnover of $97 million.
Shares in Fletcher Building rose 1 percent after successful negotiation of a contract to build a new $300 million prison at Wiri, South Auckland.
One of its units, Fletcher Construction, will design and build the prison, which should be completed by 2015, under a public-private partnership.
Fletcher's stock rose 7 cents to $6.62 a share.
At 5.10pm the New Zealand dollar was trading at 80.95 US cents, 78.35 Australian cents, 50.56 pence, 63.30 yen, 0.6339 of a euro and the TWI was at 72.33 points.
