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March 6th, 2013 
David Schulberg the 3rd
Posted
The Australian share market has rallied to a fresh four-and-a-half-year high after markets around the world climbed to multi-year highs.
On Wall Street, the blue chip Dow Jones index closed at an all-time record, while the FTSE in London reached a five-year high.
The optimism flowed through to Australian investors to see the ASX 200 close 0.8 per cent higher at 5,117.
The All Ordinaries also added 0.8 of a per cent to 5,131.
The biggest gains were in mining and energy stocks; Woodside gained 1.4 per cent and BHP Billiton rose by 1.2 per cent.
Rio Tinto lost two-thirds of a per cent – it was trading without its dividend.
Fortescue Metals, meanwhile, surged 3.7 per cent to $4.50 on the day its chairman and founder Andrew Forrest launched his High Court challenge to the mining tax.
The big four banks were also buoyant; Westpac led the way, up 1.33 per cent to hit its all-time high of $31.66.
Retail stocks joined the party; department store Myer rose by 1.75 per cent to $2.90, David Jones added 0.7 per cent to also close on $2.90, while JB Hi-Fi gained 4 per cent to close at $13.98.
Telstra, however, closed flat at $4.57.
In economic news, official figures show Australia’s economic growth slowed to 0.6 of a per cent in the last three months of last year.
That puts the annual growth rate at 3.1 per cent, which is around average.
The growth was driven by exports of iron ore and coal.
The Australian dollar jumped against most of its major counterparts since the GDP figures were released.
About 5pm (AEDT) it was buying 102.9 US cents, 78.7 euro cents, 95.9 Japanese yen and 67.9 British pence.
Spot gold was slightly lower at $US1,579 an ounce, West Texas crude oil was edging higher to $US90.90 a barrel and Tapis was up at $US118 a barrel.
Topics:
stockmarket,
banking,
mining-industry,
retail,
business-economics-and-finance,
australia
Source Article from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-06/australian-market-adds-to-global-gains/4556844
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