KEY POINTS:
PERTH - The Australian stock market closed in record territory today with the energy and resources sectors driving the bourse upwards following favourable commodity prices overnight.
At the close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 47.7 points to a record 6345.1, while the all ordinaries gained 49.4 points to a record 6346.7 points.
At 1620 AEST on the Sydney Futures Exchange, the June share price index contract was 68 points higher at 6372 on a volume of 15,587 contracts.
Austock Brokers senior client adviser Michael Heffernan said a strong lead from Wall Street, coupled with positive commodity prices helped propel the market into record territory.
"It was a very positive day on the market today, it started off with a bang," he said.
"We had a good lead from Wall Street, you had the trifecta going there with the Dow Jones, the Nasdaq and the S&P almost up one per cent.
"When you get three rises over there of one per cent, you've got a fuel-injected start for our market.
"The energy and resources stocks were strong, as you would expect with the strong upwards move in commodity prices ... clearly I think it was a commodity-driven rise in the market today."
The Dow Jones industrial average put on 111.09 points to 13,326.22, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 14.38 points to 1,505.85 and the Nasdaq gained 28.48 points to 2,562.22.
Locally, the big miners were stronger, with BHP Billiton picking up 28 cents to A$31.28 and rival Rio Tinto adding 82 cents to A$92.82.
The banks were mixed, with the National Australia Bank gaining 22 cents to A$43.25, the Commonwealth Bank putting on 59 cents to A$54.20, Westpac adding 49 cents to A$27.76 but ANZ dropped 44 cents to A$29.99.
Flight Centre put on 20 cents to A$17.70 after the company signed an in-principal agreement on the terms of a planned formation of a leveraged joint venture with funds advised by Pacific Equity Partners (PEP).
Leighton Holdings rose A$1.50 to A$39.40 after the it upgraded its full-year earnings outlook, with the construction company now expecting net profit to be up 55 per cent on last financial year.
Australia's largest telecom, Telstra Corp, gained four cents to A$4.90 after the telco said today it would consider all its options if it received any takeover approach.
There has been speculation among analysts in recent weeks that Telstra could become the target of a private equity consortium following increased interest in telcos worldwide.
The retailers were mixed, with Coles Group adding 12 cents to A$17.89, Harvey Norman putting on 13 cents to A$5.38, David Jones picking up 35 cents to A$5.38 and Woolworths dipping 16 cents to A$28.56.
Just Group put on 19 cents to A$4.13 after the youth-clothing retailer said sales and profits for the first 15 weeks of the second half of its financial year were ahead of the same period last year.
The media sector was mixed with Fairfax gaining three cents to A$5.08, the James Packer-led PBL picked up nine cents to A$21.77.
News Corp dropped 13 cents to A$27.87 and its non-voting shares slipped 11 cents to A$25.72.
The energy sector was stronger following a rise in the oil price, with Woodside lifting A$1.35 higher to A$43.70 and Oil Search finding seven cents to A$3.92.
Santos surged 73 cents to A$12.98 after the oil and gas producer announced an off-market share buyback worth A$300 million.
The spot price of gold was higher and at 1628 AEST was trading at US$674 an ounce, up US$6.10 an ounce from Friday's local close.
The gold miners were mixed, with Newcrest picking up three cents to A$22.83, Lihir Gold finding 10 cents to A$3.08 and Newmont dipping three cents to A$4.97.
Mobile telephone service provider CommodiTel was the most traded stock on the market today with 65.6 million shares changing hands worth A$2.1 million.
Preliminary market turnover reached 1.71 billion worth A$5.91 billion, with 700 stocks moving up, 575 down and 349 unchanged.
- AAP