Australian stocks closed slightly firmer today, led by financial stocks. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) closed up 9.5pts or 0.2pct to 4782.8.

The financial sector gained 0.9pct with shares in the Commonwealth Bank (CBA) the frontrunner. CBA shares added 2.1pct to $49.89 on a broker upgrade. The ANZ Bank (ANZ) rose 0.6pct to $23.22 after announcing it is still in the running to buy Korea Exchange Bank, despite reports it had lost out to another bidder. Westpac (WBC) shares gained 1.3pct to $22.20 while the NAB (NAB) increased by 0.5pct to $24.78. Macquarie Group (MQG) shares firmed by 0.8pct to $36.45.

The majority of AXA Asia Pacific (AXA) directors have recommended shareholders accept the takeover offer from AMP Limited (AMP) and France's AXA SA. AXA shares added 1.3pct to $6.25 while AMP fell 3.5pct to $5.26.

Mining stocks were mixed. BHP Billiton (BHP) held its Annual General Meeting today, with CEO Marius Kloppers telling shareholders the miner remains committed to investing in Canada's Potash basin. Shareholders were also told the decision to ditch the bid for Potash and its joint iron ore venture with Rio Tinto (RIO) were not easy, but outweighed the risks. BHP shares added 0.7pct to $44.45 while Rio Tinto (RIO) ended lower by 0.7pct to $86.44. Newcrest Mining (NCM) shares closed down 1.3pct to $41.10 as the price of gold eased to US$1363 an ounce in Asian trade.

The Nymex crude contract also lost ground and at 4pm AEDT was worth US$84.58 a barrel. Shares in Woodside Petroleum (WPL) closed down 0.8pct to $42.16 while Santos (STO) was off 0.6pct to $13.10 and Oilsearch (OSH) gained 1.5pct to $6.71.

AWB Limited (AWB) shares finished the day's trade at $1.495 after shareholders voted in favour of a $1.24 billion takeover offer from Agrium, valuing AWB at $1.50 cash per share. AWB will be suspended from trade on Friday 19th November.

Shares in Tabcorp (TAH) closed down 0.4pct to $7.21 after the gaming giant completed a $105 million retail book build.

Telstra (TLS) shares closed down 1.2pct to $2.58 while Qantas (QAN) was off 2.2pct to $2.73.

Minutes from the last Reserve Bank Board meeting were released today and reveal the decision to lift interest rates was certainly not taken lightly. Rather the result was finely balanced given the soft near term conditions in consumer spending, business investment and housing activity. Most of the discussion in the latest board minutes has unsurprisingly portrayed a similar view to the Statement on Monetary Policy, which was released a few days after the last board meeting, however the dialogue on banking funding costs was certainly revealing. Board members discussed the pressure on bank funding costs, highlighting that there was a case for banks to lift interest rates on mortgages by more than the cash rate. Board members came to the conclusion that had interest rates remained on hold it was unlikely to alter the fact that funding pressures remained an ongoing issue for the banks.

The Australian dollar initially dipped on the release of the RBA minutes but managed to recover in afternoon trade. At 4pm AEDT the Aussie was worth US98.82c, £0.6149 and €72.44c.

On the market overall, a total of 2.83 billion shares were traded, worth $5.79 billion. 499 were up, 628 were down and 383 were unchanged.

At 4.15pm AEDT on the ASX24, the futures market was at 4717 up 10pts.

Ahead tonight, the Producer Price Index (PPI) is released in the US along with government data on industrial production and capacity.