Australian stocks open higher, revived by miners, oil

The sharemarket gave up some early gains after retail spending figures, but remained in positive territory at noon.

The share market gave up some of its early gains after the release of disappointing retail spending figures, but remained in positive territory at noon.

The benchmark S & P/ASX 200 index was up 0.35 per cent at midday (AEST), having been as much as 0.79 per cent higher during morning trade.

Retail trade data released at 11.30am showed a rise of just 0.1 per cent in June, below expectations of a rise of 0.3 per cent, and appeared to accentuate the market’s decline from a strong start.

Harvey Norman was down one per cent, JB Hi-Fi was 0.3 per cent lower, and the supermarket giants, Woolworths and Wesfarmers, were modestly higher.

Materials and energy stocks were the best performers after a rise in oil prices, with BHP Billiton up 2.8 per cent and Rio Tinto up 1.5 per cent, while Santos was 5.8 per cent stronger, Oil Search had gained 1.8 per cent and Woodside Petroleum was 0.7 per cent higher.

“Oil has once again established itself as the central thematic behind the world’s financial markets and the fact we saw such a powerful reversal at the trend low, despite US dollar strength, has driven a slight uplift in sentiment,” IG chief market strategist Chris Weston said.

“Today’s session will be key, because while price in US crude traded below Tuesday’s low and closed firmly above the high, we now need to see follow through buying (a higher high if you will) to suggest the recent move lower in the barrel is over and consolidation is likely.”

The big four banks were relatively steady.

AAP