The Australian stock market has posted solid gains following a strong performance from banks and miners and news the central bank has left the cash rate on hold.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index closed up 38.2 points, or 0.81 per cent, at 4,726.8 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index gained 36.6 points, or 0.77 per cent, at 4,816 points.

On the ASX 24, the December share price index futures contract was up 34 points at 4,733 points, with about 28,000 contracts traded.

The big banks all were well supported, with Commonwealth Bank up 47 cents at $49.76, Westpac rising 26 cents at $21.94, National Australia Bank up 24 cents at $23.96 and ANZ gaining 22 cents at $23.49.

Macquarie Group also had a good day, up 11 cents at $35.73.

Mining stocks were firmer, with the world's biggest resources company BHP Billiton rising 55 cents to $45.08 and Rio Tinto up $1.34 at $87.34.

Riversdale Mining, which rose strongly on Monday after confirmation Rio Tinto was in takeover talks, fell 44 cents to $15.87.

Nickel explorer Mindoro Resources debuted on the Australian Securities Exchange and rose three cents, or 15 per cent, to 23 cents.

Gold producer Newcrest gained one per cent to $41.50 and copper specialist OZ Minerals was up four cents at $1.695.

Energy stocks were also mixed, despite gains in oil prices. Woodside Petroleum was up 22 cents at $42.90, but rival Oil Search fell five cents to $7.01.

Gas giant Santos was steady at $12.65 and Origin Energy was up 12 cents at $16.26.

Westfield Group was five cents stronger at $12.33, after it said it had raised $2.01 billion from its public offer to establish Westfield Retail Trust.

Fairfax recovered from falls on Monday when chief executive Brian McCarthy resigned from the company, and closed up 3.5 cents at $1.445.

Among other media stocks, News Corp rose one cent to $16.31 and its non voting scrip was up six cents at $14.49.

Coles owner Wesfarmers was up 53 cents at $32.21, while Woolworths gained 21 cents to $26.69.

Among the department stores, Myer dipped one cent to $3.50, David Jones gained three cents to $4.38 and Harvey Norman was down one cent at $3.02.

Preliminary national turnover was 2.58 billion shares worth $5.4 billion, with 575 stocks up, 520 down and 414 unchanged.

The strongest performing stock was biomedical products seller Helicon Group, which rose 56 per cent to 3.9 cents.

Multistack International Ltd was the worst performer, off 33 per cent to 0.4 cents.

The Australian dollar pared some of its overnight gains in Asian trade Tuesday as the country's central bank kept interest rates steady and signalled it may be on hold for some time.

Australian bonds were lifted on the short end by the Reserve Bank of Australia's statement.

Though the Australian dollar moved sharply higher overnight as traders in the U.S. rotated once again out of the U.S. dollar, much of the Asian trading was a sell in the Australian dollar.

Initially hurting the currency, the state run China Securities Journal said the People's Bank of China might raise interest rates sometime around this weekend, before Monday's release of November inflation data.

From there, the currency was further hit by the RBA, which left interest rates unchanged at 4.75% and said it expects inflation to remain contained over the next few quarters.

But after an initial drop, the Australian dollar was only slightly below where it sat prior to the RBA decision.

Notably, the decision left few surprised after data last week showed the economy grew at its slowest quarterly pace in two years in the third quarter.

The Australian dollar traded at $0.9911, up from $0.9878 late Monday, but off an earlier higher of $0.9917.

Against the Japanese yen, the currency traded at 81.73, down from 81.975