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PERTH - The Australian stock market has returned to positive territory, with strong gains in the resources sector helping the bourse recover from its massive falls on Friday.
At the close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was 25.9 points higher at 6108.8, while the all ordinaries gained 19.2 cents to 6146.5.
At 1615 AEST on the Sydney Futures Exchange, the September share price index contract was 20 points higher at 6085 on a volume of 34,788 contracts.
CMC Markets analyst David Land said a strong performance by a number of companies, including BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, helped push the bourse into positive territory
"It was a surprisingly strong day for the most part. Judging by futures values overnight and the Dow Jones movement on Friday, I think the anticipation had been for a continuation lower," Mr Land said.
"We've seen support from a number of the big companies - BHP, Rio and Woolworths - enough to offset a bit of a mixed performance from the finance sector.
"It will be very interesting to see what sort of movements we get out of the US in the coming week, but I wouldn't be surprised if we see a bit of heightened volatility for a little while to come."
The market got off to a poor start following a weak lead from Wall Street.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost 208.10 points to 13,265.47, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index shed 23.71 points to 1,458.95 and the Nasdaq dropped 37.10 points to 2,562.24.
Locally, the big miners were stronger, with BHP Billiton adding 82 cents to A$36.79 and rival Rio Tinto picking up A$1.16 to A$91.76.
The banks were mixed, with Commonwealth Bank adding three cents to A$54.60, Westpac gaining seven cents to A$25.78 although National Australia Bank lost five cents to A$38.15 and ANZ retreated two cents to A$28.15.
Mining contractor Macmahon Holdings gained five cents to A$1.35 after larger rival Leighton Holdings took a 4.9 per cent stake in the company and expressed a desire in developing a "closer relationship".
Leighton shares picked up 52 cents to A$37.42.
Australand Property Group dipped two cents to A$2.28 despite the company posting a 34 per cent lift in first half profit to A$119.6 million.
Valad Property Group was steady at A$1.85 after it flagged the A$277.3 million acquisition of a group of retail depots and packaging plants operated by Carter Holt Harvey Ltd.
The retailers were mixed, with Woolworths finding 76 cents to A$27.00, Coles dropping nine cents to A$14.20, David Jones losing two cents to A$5.61 and Harvey Norman shedding one cent to A$5.15.
The energy sector was weaker, with Woodside retreating 26 cents to A$42.75 and Oil Search losing three cents to A$3.85.
Santos shed 30 cents to A$13.15, with the oil and gas producer starting an investigation into the cause of a leak in part of the Moonie to Brisbane pipeline.
The media sector was mixed, with News Corp gaining eight cents to A$26.48, its non-voting shares finding 10 cents to A$24.71, PBL picking up 34 cents to A$18.60 and Fairfax shedding seven cents to A$4.84.
The spot gold price was lower and at 1623 AEST was trading at US$661 an ounce, down US$3.00 an ounce from Friday's local close.
The gold miners were mixed, with Newmont picking up five cents to A$4.86, Newcrest losing 22 cents to A$24.53 and Lihir Gold dropping three cents to A$2.99.
Troubled gold explorer Bendigo Mining gained 4.5 cents, or 14 per cent, to 36.5 cents following the discovery of two new reefs at its project in Victoria.
Empire Oil & Gas was the most traded stock on the market today with 147 million shares changing hands worth A$1.7 million.
Preliminary market turnover reached 1.92 billion shares worth A$6.38 billion, with 485 stocks up, 791 down and 354 unchanged.
- AAP