Shares surge on Reserve Bank"s vote of confidence

October 7, 2009 17:19:00
Updated October 7, 2009 17:25:00

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Big rises in mining stocks have led strong gains on the Australian share market, as the Reserve Bank's upbeat analysis reverberated through global markets overnight and today.

The All Ordinaries Index closed up 2.1 per cent at 4,696, while the ASX 200 has jumped 104 points to 4,696.

Rio Tinto has surged more than 5 per cent to $60.75, while BHP Billiton closed more than 3 per cent higher at $37.81.

Gold miners benefited from a jump in prices, with gold futures touching a record $US1,045 an ounce in overseas trade overnight.

Even though the precious metal eased slightly today, at 5:05pm AEDT it was still just above the $US1,040 mark.

Newcrest Mining closed up 6.7 per cent to $35.15, Lihir Gold gained the most in a month surging 5.7 per cent to $3.14, and Avoca Resources gained 3.2 per cent.

The big banks also rose strongly, with the Commonwealth putting on $1.80 to $51.30, but Westpac went into a trading halt this afternoon pending the public announcement of a New Zealand court verdict into some of its prior tax arrangements at 10:00am AEDT tomorrow - the company says it expects to resume trading at 11:00am.

Regional markets reflected Australia's gains after yesterday's vote of confidence in the regional and world economy by Australia's Reserve Bank reverberated across world markets.

West Texas crude oil was slightly stronger at $US71.55 a barrel, and Tapis eased marginally to $US73.07.

Tags: business-economics-and-finance , company-news , banking , gold , mining , finance-markets , stockmarket , currency-markets , australia