The major share market index of New Zealand started off the first day of trading for 2011, going well over 30 points or almost 1% during mid-afternoon, and ended with much confidence, ahead by 27.59 points at the day end.

The benchmark NZX-50 index ended at 3336.62, a little betterment in its last day of trading on 24th December, when a decrease by 25 points left the index with a total profit for the year of about 2.7%.

There had been 42 increases and 32 reductions in the 103 stocks traded all over the entire market. The 13.8m shares were traded at a worth of $27.1m.

One of the best performers in Wednesday's thin trade was Fletcher Building, which rose by 1.7%, by 13c to 779, while more than a million shares changed hands, while Fisher & Paykel Health jumped by 2.57%, by 8c to 319, on much little parcels of shares.

The casino operator Sky City increased by 4c during early trade and continued to increase to end the day with a gain of 6c at 330, Auckland Airport increased by 5c to 223, while cornerstone stock Telecom went up by 1c to 218 as 2.5m of its shares were sold.