KEY POINTS:
PERTH - The Australian stock market closed in positive territory buoyed by strong gains in the resource sector, particularly BHP Billiton.
At the close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 8.4 points to 6240.1 while the all ordinaries gained 9.3 points to 6267.7.
At 1620 AEST on the Sydney Futures Exchange, the June share price index contract was 24 points higher at 6248 on a volume of 27,323 contracts.
CMC Markets senior dealer James Foulsham said strong gains by BHP Billiton kept the market afloat and helped counteract losses in the banking sector.
"The market looked a lot stronger on the open, we were expecting a bigger bounce after last week's weakness, but I think it still shows people are a little bit cautious," Mr Foulsham said.
"BHP was particularly strong, but some of the banks were a bit weaker and that was dragging the market down."
Mr Foulsham said it was likely the market would continue along the same trend for the rest of the week.
"I think we might see a similar trend to today where people are just holding their guns for a little while and waiting to see if we continue to get a strong lead's out of the US," he said.
"If we do have a strong 2-3 days out of the Dow, I'm sure the Aussie market will kick back in, but until we do, I think it is going to hang in limbo for a little bit."
The Dow Jones industrial average added 0.57 to 13,424.96, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index put on 1.45 points to 1,509.12 and the Nasdaq dipped 1.39 points to 2,572.15.
Locally, the big miners were stronger on the back of solid metal prices, with BHP Billiton gaining 49 cents to A$33.36 and Rio Tinto picking up 28 cents to A$92.25.
The banking sector was mixed, with National Australia Bank finding 23 cents to A$40.44, Westpac dipping 21 cents to A$25.52 and the Commonwealth Bank losing 40 cents to A$53.75.
ANZ, Australia's third largest bank, slipped nine cents to A$29.02 after appointing Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank's Michael Smith to succeed its chief executive John McFarlane.
Property and funds management group Multiplex picked up one cent to A$5.01 after the company's board endorsed a A$4.3 billion takeover offer by Canadian-based Brookfield Asset Management.
Insurance group IAG dipped seven cents to A$5.90 after the company said it had received more than 9,000 claims following the storms and flooding on the Central Coast of New South Wales.
The media sector was mixed, with the James Packer-led PBL putting on two cents to A$19.50, News Corp adding two cents to A$28.32, its non-voting shares picking up five cents to A$26.25 and Fairfax dropping one cent to A$4.67.
Macquarie Media Group put on 23 cents to A$4.51 after it flagged the purchase of a northern US community newspaper and an Oklahoma publisher by its subsidiary American Consolidate Media for A$80.1 million.
The retailers were mixed, with David Jones finding seven cents to A$5.24, Coles gaining one cent to A$16.54, Woolworths shedding 47 cents to A$27.05 and Harvey Norman dropping six cents to A$5.04.
The energy sector was mixed despite an increase in the oil price overnight, with Santos growing three cents to A$13.40, Oil Search climbing nine cents to A$3.98 and Woodside retreating 20 cents to A$43.15.
The spot price of gold was lower and at 1631 AEST was trading at US$653.40 an ounce, down US$5.35 an ounce from Friday's local close.
The gold miners were weaker, with Newcrest retreating 25 cents to A$23.40, Lihir Gold dipping one cent to A$3.12 and Newmont losing seven cents to A$4.70.
Oil explorer Lakes Oil was the most traded stock on the market today with 69.9 million shares changing hands worth A$965,464.
Preliminary market turnover reached 1.91 billion worth A$6.48 billion, with 671 stocks moving up, 641 moving down and 368 unchanged.
- AAP