KEY POINTS:
SYDNEY - The Australian sharemarket closed in positive territory after a day of consolidation following a strong lead from Wall Street on Friday.
At the 1615 AEST close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 20.1 points at 6267.3, while the all ordinaries gained 24.2 points to 6272.5.
On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the September share price index contract climbed 33 points to 6294, on a volume of 18,922 contracts, according to preliminary calculations.
Director of equities at Ausbil Dexia John Grace said trade would be quiet this week.
"There are not many people around Sydney and it's post reporting season, so we're expecting a very quiet week," he said.
"There is some unwinding of some positions from last month".
Mr Grace said it was a positive day on the local market.
"Basically, it was a good consolidation day after a very strong Friday."
"It's positive and the market has been up today. There are a few ex-dividends accounting for a few points off the index, such as QBE Insurance Group and Caltex."
The biggest leaders in the local market included mining giant BHP Billiton, up 15 cents to A$38.57, and Rio Tinto was 58 cents stronger at A$94.10.
Leighton Holdings was a strong performer, up A$2.86 to A$46.70 after it announced it would merge its Gulf region division with United Arab Emirates company, Al Habtoor Engineering, investing A$879 million for a 45 per cent stake in the new entity.
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 119.01 points, at 13,357.74, while the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 31.06 points at 2,596.36.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 16.35 points at 1,473.99.
In economic news today, the Australian Bureau of Statistics building approvals data for July revealed a rise of 0.4 per cent to 12,980 units, seasonally adjusted, from a downwardly revised 12,925 units in June.
ANZ job advertisements data for August showed the total number of jobs ads in major metropolitan newspapers and on the internet grew by 0.1 per cent in August to an average of 248,751 per week.
The TD Securities-Melbourne Institute Inflation Gauge rose 0.5 per cent in August.
The big banks were mixed, with ANZ up 23 cents to A$29.22, National Australia Bank losing two cents to A$39.92, Commonwealth Bank up 12 cents to A$55.27 and Westpac adding 21 cents to A$27.41.
Shares in Challenger Financial Services Group jumped eight cents to A$5.52 after it announced it had bought Choice Aggregation Services, the owner of mortgage broker Choice Home Loans, for A$163 million.
Shares in Multiplex Group gained one cent to A$5.00.
The company set to take over Multiplex, Brookfield BidCo (Australia) Pty Ltd, said today it may have overstated how many shares it holds in the Australian construction giant due to an administrative error.
Symbion Health's shares rose 10 cents to A$4.26 after Primary Health Care Ltd said it might launch a takeover offer for Symbion in conjunction with private equity.
The retailers were mixed, with Woolworths dipping 45 cents to A$29.47, Coles up three cents at A$14.20, Harvey Norman finding eight cents to A$5.40 and David Jones unchanged at A$5.17.
The media sector was also mixed, with Fairfax dipping four cents to A$4.60, PBL adding eight cents to A$18.00 and News Corp unchanged at A$26.63 while its non-voting shares gained 18 cents to A$24.88.
Entertainment company Village Roadshow Ltd has signed an agreement with Concord Music Group to form a new entertainment group, merging Concord with its Village Roadshow Pictures Group (VRPG).
Shares in Village rose 26 cents to A$3.44.
The energy sector was mixed, with Oil Search up one cent to A$3.69, Woodside losing 15 cents to A$45.15 and Santos shedding 17 cents to A$13.08.
The spot price of gold was higher at US$672.20 an ounce, up US$4.10 on Friday's local close.
Newmont was up eight cents to A$5.20, Newcrest was down 10 cents at A$24.40 and Lihir was steady at A$3.07.
Takoradi Ltd was the most traded stock on the market today with 345.4 million shares changing hands worth A$6.7 million. Its shares were 0.5 cents higher to two cents.
Preliminary market turnover reached 2.06 billion shares worth A$4.17 billion, with 686 stocks up, 531 down and 308 unchanged.
- AAP