The Australian share market has posted a second successive day of good gains with all sectors showing strength. Thursday's rise reflected the positive mood on Wall Street after its best day in eight weeks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 37 points, or 0.82 per cent, at 4,532.7 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index rose 36.2 points, or 0.8 per cent, to 4,563 points.

On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the September share price index futures contract was 37 points higher at 4,530 on volume of 35,230 contracts.

Rio Tinto rose 88 cents, or 1.22 per cent, to $73.12, while BHP Billiton gained 41 cents, or 1.08 per cent, to $38.32.

Among the major banks, ANZ rose 29 cents at $23.43, Commonwealth Bank gained 61 cents to $51.92, National Australia Bank added 26 cents to $21.11 and Westpac finished 30 cents higher at $22.65. Macquarie Group lost 40 cents to $37.40.

Other strong performers where the major retail stocks. Coles owner Wesfarmers rose 57 cents, or 1.74 per cent, at $33.29, while Woolworths gained 24 cents, or 0.85 per cent to $28.47.

David Jones added 17 cents to $5.15, JB Hi-Fi gained 35 cents to $21.39 and Harvey Norman lost one cent to $3.48.

In news, Grocery and hardware wholesaler Metcash says underlying earnings per share in fiscal 2011 is likely to grow by six to eight per cent. Metcash fell nine cents, or 2.04 per cent, to $4.32.

Woodside Petroleum says its Browse liquefied natural gas development is on track to complete a $1.25 billion work program by mid 2012. Its shares rose 33 cents to $43.23. Among the other energy stocks, Santos fell 23 cents to $14.06, while Oil Search gained one cent to $5.95.

The spot price of gold in Sydney was $1,246.20 per fine ounce, down $3.18 from Wednesday's closing price of $1,249.38. Newcrest was up 17 cents at $38.07.

Telstra added two cents to $2.81. The most traded stock by volume was Cougar Energy, with 82.2 million shares worth $3.1 million changing hands. Cougar stock fell 4.1 cents, or 54.67 per cent, to 3.4 cents.

The coal gas developer's shares resumed trading on Thursday after being suspended since July. Cougar warned in its annual results on Tuesday that it may not be able to continue as a going concern unless the Queensland government lifts an environmental order which has stopped work at its pilot plant near Kingaroy.

Preliminary national turnover was 2.12 billion securities worth $5.12 billion, with 654 stocks up, 416 down and 369 unchanged.

The Australian dollar was higher late in Asia on Thursday on the back of better than expected U.S. manufacturing data, heading into an offshore session packed with event risk.

Topping the agenda for Europe and New York trade are a policy decision by the European Central Bank, a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and a range of data including U.K. house prices and U.S. initial jobless claims.

Although the ECB is widely expected to leave rates unchanged, much attention will be on ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet for his latest remarks on the economy.

The local currency weakened a little after the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported the seasonally adjusted balance on trade in goods and services narrowed to a surplus of $1.89 billion in July from $3.44 billion in June.

Economists had expected a July surplus of $3.1 billion. The Australian dollar was at $0.9075, up from $0.8993 late Wednesday. Against the Japanese yen, the Australian dollar was at 76.44, from 75.865.