The market bounced nicely today following a positive lead from Wall Street overnight.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index ended 2.6% or 141 points up at 5,502.90, whilst the broader All Ordinaries Index ended 2.4% or 130 points up at 5544.90.
The banks were the biggest winners, all gaining between 4% and 6% in value, driving the local bourse higher.
ANZ was up $1.13 or 5% to $23.54 , CBA added $2.2 or 5.2% to $44.29, Westpac gained $1.52 or 6.5% to $24.92, National Australia Bank gained $1.37 or 4.7% to $30.50.
The big miners were also slightly up, with BHP Billiton adding 10 cents to $36.75 and Rio Tinto rose $1.169 to $125.36.
Futuris Corporation, which owns Elders, was 1.5 cents to $1.825, while Singapore Telecommunications, Optus’s parent, put on 1 cents to $3.14. The two are part of OPEL Networks, a joint venture which had lost its contract to build a wimax broadband network for rural Australia today, after the government deemed it had not met all the conditions of the agreement.
Computershare rose 24 cents to $9.03 after it announced its $135.4 million takeover offer for all of the shares in QM Technologies was now unconditional. QM Technologies was untraded at $3.36.
Spot gold was last traded at US$887.70 per ounce in New York.
