The Australian sharemarket wiped out yesterday´s pullback with the All Ordinaries index (XAO) gaining 0.8pct or 39pts to 4911.60. Most sectors managed to post slight gains with the energy, materials and financial sectors the biggest contributors to the gains.

Despite weaker commodity prices, our miners gained strongly after both RIO Tinto (RIO) and iron ore producer, Fortescue Metals (FMG) posted solid quarter production numbers. RIO announced record quarterly and annual iron ore production figures and mentioned that it was running its operations at full capacity last year. RIO shares finished 1.07pct or $0.92 higher at $86.80. FMG gained 8.02pct or 54cents to $7.27.

Watpac (WTP) fell 10.27pct or 19cents to $1.66. WTP is a listed construction company and property developer in Queensland and has said that its first half profit will probably be substantially lower than previously forecast due to the wet weather conditions on the east coast.

Singapore Exchange (SGX) posted an S$81.7 million net profit for the previous quarter, which is a 14 pct rise on a year ago.

Our four largest banks finished stronger with ANZ Banking Group (ANZ), the best performer after rising 1.23pct or 28cents to $22.99. The other majors all gained at least 0.5pct.

On the economic front, data was released on alcohol consumption for the 2008 - 2009 year by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and as expected, Australians are drinking less beer and more wine than at any other time over the past 60 years. The average Australian consumed around 107 litres of beer, or around 284 stubbies. On the other hand, Australians consumed on average around 38 bottles of wine over the year.

Commsec Economist, Savanth Sebastian said that "Australians love of a beer and a barbie is a well used cliché, however we may be hearing it a whole lot less in the future. In the space of 30 years Australia has been transformed from a beer drinking nation to a country of wine connoisseurs. Beer consumption has slumped to the lowest levels in 61 years and it has been coming for some time. In fact beer consumption has only risen just three times in the past 20 years."

The Housing Industry Association and rpdata.com released their quarterly land report today which has shown that land sales volumes are the lowest they have been in a decade. Mr Sebastian said that "The latest residential land report clearly highlights a vast range of issues facing the housing sector. Land sales slumped in the September quarter, in line with previous data on dwelling commencements. There is no doubt that the activity in the housing sector is slowing down. Housing starts recorded the biggest quarterly slide in a decade over the September quarter and similarly land sales are also at decade lows, down 57 per cent compared with the prior year."

The Australian dollar (AUD) buys US99.4 cents and has gained and currently is around 0.5 cent stronger than at this time last week.

The number of shares traded came to 2.7 billion shares, worth $3.98 billion. 603 shares were up, 550 finished weaker and 361 ended unchanged.

At 4.30pm AEDT on the Sydney Futures Exchange, the Share Price Index futures contract (SPI) is up 0.7pct or 33pts to 4778.

Dow Jones futures are pointing to a slightly stronger start to the first session of the week tonight out of the U.S.

In the US tonight, the Empire State manufacturing survey is released together with capital flows data.