Wellington - The New Zealand stock market rose 2.2 per cent on Wednesday after a roller-coaster day in which strong gains in morning trading were checked later.

The benchmark NZX-50 index rose nearly 4 per cent in the first 15 minutes of trading, apparently fired by news of dramatic gains on Wall Street which produced the second biggest rise on record.

But the index ended the day just 58 points up on 2,746 after the release of figures revealing the overseas trade deficit hit 1.2 billion New Zealand dollars (684 million US dollars) in September, the worst monthly result since November 2005. (dpa)