National held 46 percent of the party vote and Labour 32 percent.
The ACT Party, National's partner, had won 3.6 percent of the votes counted and Labour's ally the Greens 6.4 percent.
On those results, National and ACT would hold 65 seats with Labour and the Greens holding 50 seats.
New Zealand First, which needs to reach 5 percent to hold any seats, had gained 4.3 percent.
United Future and the Progressive Party were both below 1 percent. Their leaders, Peter Dunne and Jim Anderton, were expected to hold their seats but would not take any more MPs into Parliament with them.
Mr Dunne is committed to supporting National and Mr Anderton Labour.
The Maori Party was sure of retaining the four Maori seats it already holds but the trend in the other three was uncertain.