New Zealand shares had another strong day, with the benchmark Top 50 Index continuing to break records and up 20 points to 5491 by the close of trade.
The market also reached an intraday record high of 5506 points.
Don Lewthwaite from First NZ Capital said the market was driven higher by income stocks such as Infratil, which announced today it would return about $145 million of capital to shareholders over the next few months.
Among the energy companies, Mighty River Power shares climbed 10 cents to $3.13 and Meridian Energy rose 3.5 cents to $1.77.5.
Infratil rose 6 cents to $3.09, while Gentrack gained 10 cents to $2.20. Mainfreight fell 31 cents to $15.74.
The New Zealand dollar was little changed from this morning's open, with a holiday in the United States keeping many traders away.
A senior client adviser at Bancorp Treasury Services, Peter Cavanaugh, said the dollar is likely to continue in a narrow range with a bias on the downside.
At 5.20pm today, the New Zealand dollar was trading at 77.50 US cents, 89.69 Australian, 48.91 British pence, 0.6235 euro, 89.10 yen and 4.74 renminbi.
