KEY POINTS:
PERTH - The Australian stock market closed stronger today with broad gains across several sectors pushing the bourse into positive territory.
At the close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 24 points at 6212.2, while the all ordinaries gained 24.5 points to 6197.8.
At 1621 AEST on the Sydney Futures Exchange, the June share price index contract was 52 points higher at 6229, on a volume of 15,326 contracts.
CMC Markets analyst David Land said gains by a broad range of sectors helped offset a drop in some of the larger financial institutions.
"The life across the market has been positive most of the day, but it definitely strengthened in the latter part of the session," he said.
"We've seen quite a bit of life across a broad range of sectors and it's been broad enough to offset some of the falls from some of the larger companies within the finance sector.
"Some of the notable gains came from BHP and Rio and there was some life out of the Macquarie Bank today, which is back up over the $90 (a share) mark."
The market got off to a strong start following a positive lead from Wall Street overnight.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 135.95 points to 13,089.89 - the first time it closed over 13,000.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index put on 15.01 points to 1,495.42 and the Nasdaq added 23.35 points to 2,547.89.
Locally, the big miners were stronger. BHP Billiton picked up 21 cents to $30.22, while rival Rio Tinto edged $1.14 higher to $84.89.
- AAP