The Australian sharemarket is making up for yesterday’s pullback and the All Ordinaries index (XAO) is 0.8 pct or 36.3 pts stronger to 4548.8. Almost all sectors are higher with the mining and energy players amongst the most significant improvers at lunch.

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Australia’s largest miner, BHP Billiton (BHP) is up 1.18 pct or 49 cents to $41.85 while RIO Tinto (RIO) is 1.24 pct or 96 cents higher to $78.26. The country’s biggest gold producer, Newcrest Mining (NCM) is 1.58 pct or 57 cents stronger to $36.70.

The 4 big banks are improving, with Westpac (WBC) the best up 1.37 pct or 28 cents to $21.40, ANZ Banking Group (ANZ) is 1.08 pct or 23 cents stronger to $21.47, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) is up 0.97 pct or 48 cents to $49.98 and National Australia Bank (NAB) is up a modest 0.25 pct or 6 cents to $24.51.

The airlines are holding up well despite further interruptions to flights across the country. Qantas Airways (QAN) is flat while Virgin Blue (VBA) is off 0.89 pct or 0.25 cent to 27.75 cents.

The retailers are mixed, with department store owner Myer (MYR) down 1.09 pct or 3 cents to $2.72 while its competitor David Jones (DJS) is gaining by 0.5 pct or 2 cents to $4.00. One of the world’s largest shopping centre owners Westfield (WDC) is 0.47 pct or 4 cents higher to $8.63.

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 mostly stronger, with shares in the Philippines up a little over 1 pct, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index up 0.86 pct or 80.49 pts to 9434.81, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is 0.79 pct or 171.11 pts stronger to 21770.62 and China’s Shanghai Composite index is 0.53 pct or 13.87 pts higher to 2635.12.

On the economic front in Australia today, the latest Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) board minutes are released. This gives us an idea what the central bank was thinking when they decided to keep rates unchanged for yet another month.

The best performing stock at lunch is Oroya Mining (ORO) which is up 50 pct or 0.1 cent to 0.3 cents. ORO is a Western Australian based metals exploration company with interests in gold, copper, uranium and nickel. ORO was first listed in 1986 and has a market capitalisation of $6.02 million.

So far today, 1.04 billion shares have been traded worth $2.19 billion. 497 shares are up, 395 are lower and 413 are currently unchanged.

The Australian dollar is stronger and buys US105.3 cents.

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