The Australian sharemarket close 1.8pct or 77.3pts stronger to 4477.30. Asian markets are maintaining their strength in the second half of trade thanks to strength from both US and European markets overnight.

Asian markets continued to gain after PC chipmaker, Intel Corporation (INTC) had a much better 2nd quarter than was expected after reporting early this morning. This helped some of the largest electronic goods producers such as Japan and South Korean markets.

The miners wiped out a good portion of yesterday's losses with BHP Billiton (BHP) up 2.07pct or 78cents to $38.40 whilst RIO Tinto (RIO) rose 1.25pct or 83cents to $67.38. RIO's share price did fall back a little after releasing their 2nd quarter update this afternoon and reported a 19pct fall in copper production in addition to a 34pct drop in gold production.

The big 4 banks performed strongly, especially Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and Westpac (WBC), which both gained more than 3pct. National Australia Bank (NAB) lagged behind ahead of the AXA Asia Pacific (AXA) acquisition deadline tomorrow evening.

The retailers also posted solid gains which were broadly in line with the market after both David Jones (DJS) and Myer (MYR) rose by around 2pct.

Tomorrow, Agricultural Bank of China (Agbank) lists tomorrow on the Chinese sharemarket and on the Hong Kong exchange on Friday. Agbank is the largest Initial Public Offering (IPO) ever with more than US$20 billion raised. A strong start to trade is expected.

On the economic front, July's consumer confidence figures were released and recorded an 11pct rise in July after a few months of weakness. Coalition supporters interestingly had their confidence levels rise by close to 20pct whilst labour supporters only had confidence rising by 4pct. The younger generation also seem more optimistic with the 18-24 year old demographic seeing their confidence rising by 13pct whilst the 25-44 year old group rose by less than 10pct. Commsec's Chief Economist, Craig James said that "The good news is that all key demographic groups - young and old - as well as home buyers, owners and renters were similarly cheerful in the latest month. That shows that interest rates, jobs and even perhaps resolution of the mining tax debate have equally affected confidence levels." Mr James went on to explain that "A combination of stable interest rates, a firm job market and significant discounting by retailers have put grins back on the faces of Aussie consumers. But the $64 question is whether Australia's more confident consumers will start spending again. Most likely it will take an extended period of interest rate stability to tempt consumers from their burrows and back into the shopping malls."

Australian wealth levels are also at impressive levels with Mr James saying that "Wealth held by Australians in property, shares and other assets hit record highs at the end of March. The latest data produced by Federal Treasury and the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that private sector wealth lifted by 2.4 per cent to $5.77 trillion at the end of March."

Volume still remained on the light side with the number of shares traded coming to 1.69 billion shares, worth $3.54 billion. 701 shares were up, 318 finished weaker and 303 ended unchanged.

At 4.30pm AEST on the Sydney Futures Exchange, the Share Price Index futures contract (SPI) is down 0.02pct or 1pt to 4444.

Dow Jones futures are pointing to a slightly weaker start when the market opens at 11.30pm (AEST) tonight.

Tonight, Marriot, Charles Schwab, JP Morgan and Google will be posting their 2nd quarter results later in the US.

On the economic front, in the US, retail sales figures and minutes from the last Federal Reserve meeting are released.

Provided by Comsec.com.au