Australian shares edged higher, stretching gains into a third day, with bank gains eclipsing miners' losses.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index ended up 11.3 points, or 0.3 per cent, at 4497.4 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index gained 9.5 points, or 0.2 per cent, at 4513.9 points.
On a sector-by-sector basis, financials were up 0.7 per cent, energy stocks gained 0.1 per cent while miners shed 0.4 per cent.
IAG sank after it announced a halving of profit on rising UK claims, with stock diving as much as 18 cents, or 5.14 per cent, to $3.32. It clawed back some of the losses to end the day at $3.35, down 15 cents or 4.3 per cent.
What you need to know
- The Australian dollar was buying 90.2 US cents
- Asian shares gain on earnings optimism
- Gold futures were hovering at $US1189 an ounce
- Oil futures were steady at $US79 a barrel
- Dow futures were down 18 points to 10,439
The big four banks led the market higher in morning trade and held on to gains during the afternoon session.
Westpac closed up 55 cents at $23.70, National Australia Bank was 20 cents higher at $24.97, Commonwealth Bank rose 59 cents at $52.08 and ANZ was up 20 cents at $22.93.
Macquarie Group, though, fell 44 cents to $39.30.
''The financials are pretty strong today, which is why the market is higher, and they pretty much cancelled out the negative effect of the miners,'' said Stan Shamu, an analyst at Australian Stock Report.
Miners mostly fell, with market heavyweights BHP Billiton down seven cents at $39.75 and Rio Tinto 16 cents weaker at $70.09.
Macarthur Coal finished down 50 cents, or 3.7 per cent, at $12.92 after it abandoned plans to buy a greater stake in a Queensland coal project.
Gold miners were also lower.
Newcrest fell 29 cents to $33.06, while takeover target Lihir Gold fell two cents to $4.09 ahead of its quarterly production figures, expected to be released tomorrow.
At 1624 AEST the spot price of gold was $US1,185.50 per fine ounce, down $10.63 on Friday’s closing price of $US1,196.13 and the gold exchange traded fund was down $1.63 at $128.17.
Energy stocks were mixed, with Woodside Petroleum off 17 cents at $41.96 and rival Oil Search up nine cents at $5.93.
Oil Search today revealed falling second-quarter production, citing a processing plant shutdown and declining output from its ageing oil fields.
Gas producer Santos fell six cents to $13.79 and Origin Energy was up five cents at $15.61.
Retailers, gold
Retailers were mixed, with Wesfarmers building on yesterday’s gains to close up 28 cents at $30.36, but Woolworths was down one cent at $25.82.
Among the department stores, Myer was steady at $3.41, David Jones was up two cents at $4.70 and Harvey Norman rose one cent to $3.55.
Among media stocks, News Corp fell two cents to $16.70 while its non-voting scrip was up 13 cents at $14.90.
Fairfax Media fell three cents to $1.47 and Consolidated Media was steady at $3.12.
The top-traded stock by volume was ABM Resources NL, with 86.38 million shares worth about $2.73 million changing hands.
Its shares gained 0.1 cents, or 3.57 per cent, to 2.9 cents after it announced good drilling results from its Old Pirate gold prospect in the Northern Territory.
Preliminary national turnover was 2.1 billion shares worth $5.72 billion, with 518 stocks up, 500 down and 361 unchanged.
On the Sydney Futures Exchange at 1615 AEDT, the September share price index contract was four points weaker at 4,472 on a volume of 19,634 contracts.
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AAP, with BusinessDay