The Australian sharemarket is gaining for the third straight day with the All Ordinaries index up 0.9 pct or 44 pts to 4710.1. All sectors are trading higher with the energy and mining sectors the best performers.

The world’s largest miner, BHP Billiton (BHP) is up 1.17 pct or 52 cents to $44.94 while the iron ore focused RIO Tinto (RIO) is 0.98 pct or 82 cents stronger to $84.37. Iron ore and coal are Australia’s largest exports.

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The country’s biggest banks are all trading in the black, with Westpac (WBC) up 1.05 pct or 23 cents to $22.10, ANZ Banking Group (ANZ) is 0.92 pct or 20 cents higher to $21.98, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) is 0.86 pct or 43 cents stronger to $51.82 and National Australia Bank (NAB) is improving by 0.24 pct or 6 cents to $25.08.

Department store owner David Jones (DJS) is up 2.27 pct or 9 cents to $4.06 and its competitor Myer (MYR) is gaining by 1.14 pct or 3 cents to $2.66. Discount retailer JB Hi-Fi (JBH) is 1.35 pct or 23 cents higher to $17.21 while Australia’s largest specialty retailer, Harvey Norman (HVN) is up 1.2 pct or 3 cents to $2.53. Despite today’s gains all the above retailers have fallen significantly over the past 6 months.

Following the end of daylight savings in April this year, major Asian markets will be trading between the hours mentioned below until mid October.

The Hong Kong sharemarket trades in two sessions each day and will now be opening for trade between 11.30am (AEST) and 2pm (AEST) and then between 3.30pm (AEST) and 6pm (AEST) in its second session.

Out of Japan, the first session will be between 10am (AEST) and 12pm (AEST), while the second session is between 1.30pm (AEST) and 4pm (AEST).

The Singapore exchange will be open for trade between 11am (AEST) and 2.30pm (AEST) for the first session and then between 4pm (AEST) and 7pm (AEST) in its second session.

The Asian sharemarkets are higher, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 index up 1.06 pct or 106.79 pts to 10177.93, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index up 1.15 pct or 259.96 pts to 22790.14 and South Korea’s KOSPI index is currently flat.

As is usually the case on most Fridays, there is no major economic data scheduled for release in Australia today. In the region however, Japan will release its latest current account statistics, and an investor sentiment report.

The best performing stock at lunch is Nickelore (NIO), which is up 37.5 pct or 0.3 pts to 1.1. NIO is a mineral exploration company mainly focused on projects across Western Australia. The company was first listed back in the year 2000 and has a market capitalisation of just $1.7 million.

So far today, 651 million shares have been traded worth $1.82 billion. 619 shares are up, 281 are lower and 322 are currently unchanged.

The Australian dollar has gained significantly over the past 24 hours and currently buys US107.6 cents.

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