Banks take a turn at driving market up

BANKING and financial stocks stole the lead from the miners yesterday, as the market closed higher for the third day in a row.
Macquarie Equities private client adviser David Halliday said the big miners had been volatile amid profit taking and banks and insurers had been the flavour of the day.
"People are starting to question how sustainable these meteoric share price gains we have seen from the miners in the last 12 months are," he said.
"On the flip side, the banks are always the sector that seems to pick up the money in the absence of any certainty elsewhere."
The ASX 200 climbed 36.6 points to 4861.4 while the All Ordinaries rose 32.2 points to 4812. Both indices edged close to intraday highs.
On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the March share price index contract rose 50 points to 4848 on volume of 16,317.
All four big banks made solid gains. Westpac rose 28c to $22.97, NAB 39c to $33.42, ANZ 26c to $24.52 and Commonwealth Bank 34c to $43.79.
Mr Halliday said talk of the Government removing the 15 per cent tax on superannuation contributions had driven a rally among insurers, even though the Prime Minister, John Howard, has poured cold water on the idea.
AMP rose 12c to $8.22, IAG 5c to $5.62 and Axa Asia Pacific 23c to $5.38. Axa had reported a 140 per cent rise in net fund flows.
The big miners were mixed after a turbulent day's trading. BHP Billiton rose 24c to $25.08 but Rio Tinto fell 29c to $73.96 and Alumina fell 9c to $7.39.
News Corp fell 17c to $22.51 and its non-voting stock fell 24c to $21.34.
And Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd, which appointed a director, Chris Anderson, to replace the late Kerry Packer as deputy chairman, dipped 24c to $16.49.
Woolworths rose 61c to $17.18 after the supermarket operator posted first half sales of just over $19 billion.
The strong result also helped to boost rival Coles Myer, which climbed 10c to $10.39.
Oil and gas stocks gained too. Woodside Petroleum rose 29c to $43.65 and Santos 2c to $12.81 as it posted record full year revenues.
Embattled AWB regained ground, rising 17c to $5.17 even as an inquiry continued to probe the hundreds of millions of dollars in kickbacks the wheat exporter paid to Iraq.
Telstra fell 1c to $3.97 while Qantas rose 3c to $4.01.
The spot price of gold in Sydney closed at $US558.50, up US87.5c on Tuesday night's close.
Newcrest fell 44c to $24.15 and Lihir Gold rose 1c to $2.47.
The top traded stock by volume was Empire Oil & Gas with 51.15 million shares worth $411,458 changing hands as the share price rose 0.1c to 0.9c.
Market turnover was 1.45 billion shares worth $6.06 billion with 589 stocks rising, 478 falling and 319 unchanged.