After receiving a very positive lead from Wall Street overnight, our market maintained its early rally to close 1.1pct or 55.4pts stronger to 4872.9. The miners finished the day off by far the biggest contributors to the gains with the S&P/ASX 200 Materials index rising by 3.35pct or 453.8pts to 13958.3.

BHP Billiton (BHP) extended its gains in the second half of trade and finished up above the psychological $45 mark. BHP share rose 3.55pct or $1.55 to $45.27. RIO Tinto (RIO) rose a more significant 4.81pct or $4 to $87.20. Newcrest Mining (NCM) gained strongly as did the oil and gas producers, with both sectors benefiting off the back of stronger metals prices.

Our largest banks continued to pull back late in the session and ANZ Banking Group (ANZ) was the biggest underperformer, easing by 1.03pct or 25cents to $24.09 after the stock went ex-dividend yesterday for its final dividend of 74cents per share which is scheduled to be paid out to investors on the 17th December.

Australia's largest airline, Qantas Airways (QAN) eased by 1.04pct or 3cents to $2.86 after being in the spotlight over the last 24 hours over the company's mid air scare. QAN has said it is too early to assess the financial impact of grounding the airlines' A380s.

On the economic front today, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) released its Statement on Monetary Policy, which is published once each quarter. This is the RBA's assessment of financial and economic conditions. Commsec's Chief Economist, Craig James said that "The Reserve Bank has tinkered with economic growth forecasts, but the trajectory is largely unchanged. However the Reserve Bank has modestly downgraded inflation forecasts. The economy is tipped to grow by 3.50-3.75 per cent over 2011 and 3.75-4.00 per cent over 2012. Underlying inflation is tipped to be around 2.50 per cent over the period to June 2011 and to lift to 2.75 per cent in the year to June 2012." Mr James continued by saying that "This week's rate hike was clearly strategic. As we expected, the Reserve Bank has actually trimmed its inflation forecast. But despite that move it still decided to lift rates anyway. Clearly the inflation forecast was predicated on the assumption of some lift in interest rates. The Reserve Bank decided to lift rates now, rather than later, as a
pre-emptive strike against inflation. As the old adage goes, 'a stitch in time saves nine'. Perhaps that small rate hike will prevent rates from rising higher than originally expected over 2011."

The Australian dollar is trading around 28 year highs and currently buys US$1.014.

Volume of shares traded came in at 3.15 billion shares worth $6.83 billion. 780 shares were up, 389 finished weaker and 384 ended unchanged.

At 4.30pm AEST on the Sydney Futures Exchange, the Share Price Index futures contract (SPI) is up 4pts or 0.08pct to 4815.

Dow Jones futures are currently pointing to a flat start tonight when the U.S markets open at 12.30am (AEDT)

In the US, payrolls data, home sales and consumer credit numbers are released tonight.