The Australian share market has ended the day firmly higher with another strong result from one of the major banks and resurgent miners helping to buoy the market. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index added 36.8 points, or 0.79 per cent, to 4684.9 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index rose 32.3 points, or 0.68 per cent, to 4752.8.

On the ASX24, the December share price index futures contract was 41 points higher at 4,684, with 30,254 contracts traded. Rio Tinto recovered yesterday's losses and led the ASX 200 higher, adding $1.44, or 1.75 per cent, to $83.79. BHP Billiton added 50 cents, or 1.21 per cent, to $41.99.

Among the major banks, ANZ added 69 cents, or 2.87 per cent, to $24.73 after reporting a record $5.133 billion cash profit for fiscal 2010. NAB gained eight cents to $25.34, while Commonwealth closed 23 cents weaker at $49.32 and Westpac fell seven cents to $22.95.

The operator of the Australian stock exchange, ASX Ltd, closed 56 cents higher, or 1.5 per cent, at $37.86. The share has slipped all week after climbing 24.22 per cent to $43.43 on Monday, following news of a possible merger with the Singapore exchange.

Electrical and furniture retailer Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd reported a 0.6 per cent drop in like for like global sales in the September 2010 quarter. Shares in Harvey Norman lost five cents, or 1.46 per cent, to close at $3.38.

Conquest Mining Ltd said its takeover of North Queensland Metals Ltd and moves to fully control the Pajingo mine have been a breakthrough in efforts to become a mid-tier gold producer. In its first quarter results announced to the stock exchange on Thursday, the company reported improving net operating cashflows, at a loss of $4.04 million. Shares in Conquest gained 2.5 cents to 56 cents.

Green Rock Energy was the most traded share by volume, with 124.75 million shares changing hands for $3.474 million. Shares ended 0.8 cents higher at 2.5 cents. The company announced a finding of more than one million petajoules of stored heat at its North Perth Basin with an indicated geothermal resource of 26,000 petajoules, sufficient to support 100 megawatt power generation. Market turnover was 2.472 billion shares changing hands for $5.867 billion, with 584 shares up, 526 down and 390 unchanged.

The Australian dollar inched slightly higher Thursday, with traders repositioning after a sell-off the day before. Australian bonds moved slightly lower on both ends of the curve as much of the focus remained on key economic data due out later this week. After a weaker than expected third-quarter inflation report in Australia spurred a currency drop Wednesday, as traders re-examined their interest rate expectations from the Reserve Bank of Australia, Thursday's activity was mostly a paring from those big previous day declines.

Also helping local interest was a strong earnings report from banking giant Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. (ANZ.AU), which booked a 53% increase in its full year net profit. The Australian dollar traded at $0.9750, up from $0.9739 late Wednesday. Against the Japanese yen, the currency traded at 79.575, up from 79.525.