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MELBOURNE - The Australian share market closed around three per cent higher after stronger commodity prices boosted resources stocks.
The local market was closed on Monday for the Australia Day public holiday.
At the 1615 AEDT close on Tuesday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 101.3 points, or 3.03 per cent, at 3444.0, while the broader All Ordinaries index lifted 92 points, or 2.79 per cent, to 3392.3.
On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the March share price index futures contract was up 76 points at 3,405 on a volume of 21,919 contracts, according to preliminary calculations.
IG Markets research analyst Ben Potter said today's rise was driven by the mining and energy sectors.
The local market was digesting gains in commodity prices on Friday night and on Monday night.
"So there's a double-whammy effect there," Mr Potter said.
The mining sector was also enjoying a small relief rally after being pounded in recent sessions.
Mr Potter said investors were encouraged by a little more stability on United States markets and an unexpected rise in existing US home sales in December.
Locally, in the resources sector, global miner BHP Billiton added $1.88, or 6.85 per cent, to $29.33.
Rio Tinto gained $4.13, or 10.85 per cent, to $42.19 as it completed the sale of its half stake in the Alcan Ningxia aluminium joint venture in China to Quintongxia Aluminium Group Co Ltd (QTX) for US$125 million (A$189.25 million).
Centennial Coal, the supplier of 46 per cent of New South Wales' coal-fired electricity, nudged up one cent to $2.34 as it said demand for its coal was strong and sales increased in the second quarter.
MacArthur Coal fell five cents to $2.91 after it said it faced a $97 million hedging contracts loss because of the falling Australian dollar, amid a grim outlook for steel demand worldwide.
Oil and gas producer Woodside Petroleum climbed $1.50 to $34.65, and Santos advanced 56 cents to $13.96.
Oil Search added 20 cents to $4.36 despite saying earnings this year would be hit by the lower oil price.
On Wall Street overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index rose 38.47 points, or 0.48 per cent, to 8,116.03 as investors eyed President Barack Obama's stimulus plan weaving through Congress.
Among the big banks, the National Australia Bank rose 37 cents to $17.31, Westpac gained 22 cents to $14.82, the Commonwealth bank strengthened 67 cents to $24.74, and ANZ improved 34 cents to $12.40.
In the media sector, APN News & Media jettisoned eight cents to $2.07 as Irish media company Independent News & Media PLC failed to find a buyer for APN.
News Corp was off 39 cents at $11.40, and its non-voting scrip descended 40 cents to $10.39.
Consolidated Media was 4.5 cents richer at $1.795, and Fairfax put on 5.5 cents to $1.32.
Retailer Woolworths surged 80 cents to $26.20. Wesfarmers, which owns Coles, was up 41.8 cents at $16.40.
Telco Telstra found four cents at $3.68, and Optus-owner Singapore Telecommunications dipped two cents to $2.58.
Among gold stocks, Newmont was up 41 cents at $6.59, Newcrest soared $2.58 to $33.15, and Lihir gained 11 cents to $3.03.
The price of gold at 1636 AEDT was US$906.05, up US$47.90 on Friday's close of US$858.15.
Among other stocks, Foster's Group was steady at $5.32 as it declined to comment on an analyst's report that the global beverages firm could make further writedowns of up to $700 million on the value of its wine operations.
Share investment company Amcil scraped off one cent to 47 cents as it increased first half earnings by 38 per cent.
The top-traded stock by volume was metals explorer Excalibur Mining, with 61.9 million shares worth $917,500 changing hands.
Excalibur was up 0.2 cents at 1.4 cents.
Preliminary national turnover was 1.09 billion shares worth $3.44 billion changing hands, with 396 stocks up, 489 down and 291 unchanged.
- AAP
