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The Australian share market defied a weak lead from Wall Street to overturn a morning deficit and post a 0.2% gain Monday. ANZ lead the banks higher, while the heavyweight miners clawed back losses from brisk early selling.

In economic news, according to the TD Securities/Melbourne Institute monthly inflation gauge prices for goods and services increased by 0.3% in December following a rise of the same amount the previous month.  

Meanwhile, according to a government report Queensland overtook New South Wales as Australia’s second largest exporting state behind Western Australia. The 48% jump in exports from the Sunshine State has been attributed to coal prices and beef exports.

Nationally, exports increased by over 23% to $283.8 billion in FY09, compared with the previous financial year.

At the end of the day, the All Ords was up 6.6 to 4,936.1, while the ASX/200 advanced 11.5 to 4,911.1. About 2.4 billion shares worth around $5 billion had changed hands.

The big four banks added the most points to the index. ANZ put on 74c, or 3.3% to $23.17 as speculation surfaced it is set to make a bid for ING Office Fund for as much as $1.3 billion.

ING Office Fund shares rallied 43c, or 7.1% to $6.45.

Westpac and NAB rose 51c and 20c to $26.01 and $27.50 respectively.

Meanwhile, CBA edged 5c lower to $58.05 as analysts start raising earnings forecasts for the company predominantly due to strength in one-off items. The company featured heavily in broker reports this morning after raising its post-tax profit forecasts for the six months to 31 December 2009 from $2.7 billion to $2.9 billion late on Friday.

Investment bank Macquarie Group climbed $1.09, or 2.2% to $51.70.

AMP was the best of the insurers, up 1.2% to $6.59 following an upbeat assessment of the insurers global property fund.

The broader Banks and Financials sector advanced 1%.

The Materials and Resources halved its morning losses to close 0.4% in the red as most metals prices and gold weakened.

BHP Billiton lost 21c, or 0.5% to $43.44, while Rio Tinto slid 30c to $78.32.

Citigroup downgraded its rating on Rio to a “hold” as it expects a period of consolidation.

Expectations among analysts are for the major miners to bring in billions of dollars extra profit in coming years due to a strong demand in commodities driving prices higher. 

Lihir Gold added 3c to $3.32 as the nation’s second largest gold producer announced the resignation of Arthur Hood as CEO after more than four years at the helm. The company said chief financial officer Phil Baker has been appointed as interim CEO pending a global search for a new chief executive.

Newcrest Mining dipped just 9c to $36.08.

Metals recycler Sims Metals slumped $1.12, or 4.5% to $23.99 after being downgraded to ‘neutral’ by JPMorgan.

Macarthur Coal fell 2.7% to $11.07 following a similar downgrade, this time by UBS.
 
Energy stocks tracked the price of crude lower, with the sector down 0.1%. NYMEX crude closed at US$78.00 a barrel after its fifth consecutive day of falls.

Woodside and Origin lost 0.9% and 0.8% to $47.24 and $17.18, while African focussed uranium explorer Extract Resources slumped 4% to $8.21.

Arrow Energy climbed 14c, or 3.2% to $4.52.

Other gainers included Oil Search, up 3c, or 0.5% to $6.06 and Santos, up 12c, or 0.9% to $13.88.

Industrials gained 0.1% despite heavyweights Leighton and Qantas being down 1.4% and 0.7% respectively.

On the other side of the line, Toll and Macquarie Infrastructure gained 3.5% and 2.4% to $9.23 and $1.495.

Merrill Lynch upgraded its rating on Toll from "neutral" to "buy".

The Consumer Staples sector was 0.7% lower. Woolworths fell 12c, or 0.4% to $27.82 and Wesfarmers shed 32c, or 1% to $30.73.

The Consumer Discretionary sector added 0.2%.

Newscorp gained 4c to $17.24, while Fairfax spiked 8c, or 4.5% to $1.86.

Meanwhile retailers David Jones and Harvey Norman were nearly 2% in the red.

Telstra rallied late to add 4c, or 1.2% to $3.37 as the Telecommunications sector put on 1.1%.

Around the region, the Nikkei 225 fell 162.4 to 10,819.7, while the Straits Times Index gained 9.0 to 2,917.5. Meanwhile, the NZSE50 edged 10.8 lower to 3,247.1. The Hang Seng lost 71.7 to be at 21,582.4.

Spot gold was trading at US$1,133.50 per ounce, and the Aussie was buying US$0.9219.

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Lihir CEO Hood resigns
Lihir Gold announced the resignation of chief executive Arthur Hood today. The company said Mr Hood would step down immediately and chief financial officer Phil Baker has been appointed as interim CEO pending a global search for a new chief executive.

At the close, Lihir Gold shares were up 3c to $3.32.

Djerriwarrh Investments profit halved
Djerriwarrh Investments said its reported profit for the six months to 31 December 2009 had slumped by nearly half to just $15.1 million as companies slashed dividend payouts in the face of the GFC.

At the end of the day, Djerriwarrh Investments shares were up 19c to $4.76.

IRESS enters the Asian market
IRESS Market Technology this morning announced its newly created Singaporean subsidiary IRESS Market Technology (Singapore) Pte Ltd, had purchased SENTRYi as it looks to increase its presence in the Asian wealth management market.

At the bell, IRESS shares were down 8c to $8.70 each.

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