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Local shares defied losses on Wall Street for the second straight session, climbing 1.2% through to lunch. Gains were strongest amongst the miners and energy plays, however a retreat from gold stocks capped gains.

A driver for increased optimism was the unemployment rate falling to a seasonally adjusted 5.2%. Full-time employment increased 36,400 to 7,779,700 and part-time employment decreased 9,400 to 3,277,000.

Unemployment decreased 25,400, or 4.1% to 600,900.

At noon, the All Ords put on 47.3 to 4,449.9, while the ASX/200 added 50.5 to 4,435.8. Around 740 million shares worth around $1.8 billion had changed hands.

Bluescope Steel climbed 4c to $2.21, helped along by comments from Credit Suisse, which said that the Aussie steel producer was well positioned for a recovery in the US markets.

Rival Onesteel was 4c stronger at $2.98.

BHP Billiton was 32c higher at $37.44, while Rio Tinto gained 86c to $67.24. Australia’s third-largest iron ore miner Fortescue rose 5c to $3.96.

The Materials and Resources sector was 1.2% higher.

James Hardie tumbled 23c to $6.86, while chemicals and explosive Orica and Incitec Pivot climbed 1.5% and 1% respectively.

The big four banks were all higher by lunch.

CBA outperformed with a 76c climb to $51.49. Westpac advanced 22c to $22.64, while NAB and ANZ were 0.5% and 0.6% above the line.

It was a slow day with little movement across the rest of the Banks and Financials sector, which rose 1.2%.

QBE and Suncorp-Metway were two exceptions adding 24c and 13c to $19.27 and $8.16 respectively.

Elsewhere the Property Trusts sector was helped 1% above the line by Dexus, Mirvac and GPT which climbed between 2.5% and 3.3%.

Energy stocks made strong gains despite the sector being largely held responsible for the slump in Wall Street at the end of their trading day.

Here, however, the sector was up 2.1%.

Woodside was $1.15 higher at $44.02, while Oil Search, Santos and Origin gained 3.2%, 2.3% and 1.8% respectively.

Whitehaven fell 16c, or 3.4% to $4.49 after hosing down rumours recent strong spot coal prices would lift its full-year profit.

New Hope fell 1.6%.

Harvey Norman lead the Consumer Discretionary 1.5% above the line, gaining 14c to $3.47.

Wotif.com, heavily sold in recent weeks, jumped 3.8% to $5.18 after announcing a strong profit forecast.

Aristocrat, Tabcorp, Crown and Tatts were all between 1.5% and 2% higher.

Newscorp was the standout media play, adding 1.9% to $18.14.

Consumer Staples were 0.6% higher, despite Wesfarmers being little changed at lunch. Elders added 3.8% to 83c following media speculation a recent sell-off on the stock could have been overdone.

Telstra rallied 3c to $3.18, while the broader Telecommunications sector was 1.1% above the line.

Around the region, the Nikkei 225 added 35.1 to 9,474.2, while the NZSE50 gained 32.5 to 3,032.6. The Straits Times Index advanced 7.3 to 2,753.1.

Spot gold was trading at US$1,231.20 per ounce, while the Aussie was buying US$0.8336.

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Whitehaven set for FY10 profit of $50m to $55m
Whitehaven Coal has dismissed speculation it would raise fresh capital. The company said it was more than adequately capitalised following the $200 million raised from the previous sales of Narrabri joint venture proceeds.

At noon, Whitehaven shares were trading down 17c to $4.48.

Kingsgate gains plant expansion approval
Kingsgate Consolidated said the Thai Board of Investment approved Thai subsidiary, Akara Mining Limited, for a Zone 3 investment promotion package for the new Chatree North Processing Plant in central Thailand. The company said a Zone 3 (rural) fiscal incentive includes an eight year tax free period from first production, followed by a further five years at half the 30% corporate tax rate.

At lunch, Kingsgate shares were up 64c to $8.33.

CDI announces estimated distribution
Challenger Diversified Property Group estimated a distribution of 2.15c per unit for the six months ending 30 June 2010. The group also said that after completing valuations across its entire property portfolio it expects an uplift in values of around 2% with strong increases in properties with long leases in place.

At midday, CDI shares were down 0.5c to 52c.

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