Stockmarket reckons the party's continuing

The sharemarket has set fresh highs in its first trading day of the new year led by continued strength in the resource and energy sectors. The benchmark ASX 200 index was up 12.6 points to 4776 and the All Ordinaries firmed 12.3 to 4721.1.

Both closing marks surpassed their December 29 highs. Then, the ASX 200 closed at 4772.5 and the All Ords at 4715.2.

Joseph Palmer & Sons' manager of private client services, Allan Furlong, said resources and gold stocks led the market on another day of light trading volumes.

"I'm surprised at the strength - I think the outlook this year will be a little more subdued," he said. "Volume is still a bit light and the market seems to be going up on that light volume with resources and the gold stocks leading the way again today."

Mining group BHP Billiton rose 43c, or almost 2 per cent, to $23.18, and Rio Tinto gained 90c, or 1.3 per cent, to $69.90.

Energy stocks were also pushed higher by an overnight jump in the price of crude oil, with Woodside Petroleum climbing 81c to $40, Santos finding 12c to reach $12.37 and Oil Search putting on 9c to $3.78.

Markets in the US, Japan and New Zealand were closed.

Another spike in the spot price of gold, which jumped $US5.50 to trade at $US519.25 an ounce, bolstered gold stocks. Newmont put on 4c to $7.29, Newcrest jumped 38c to $24.68 and Lihir Gold climbed 6c to $2.24.

The Commonwealth, up 5c to $42.80, was the only bank to rise. ANZ dipped 4c to $23.91, Westpac shed 3c to $22.72 and National Australia Bank retreated 3c to $32.37.

PBL put on 8c to $16.56 after it announced that it had withdrawn from its joint venture bid for Singapore's first casino resort, citing higher costs.

Among the telecoms, Telstra gained 3c to $3.96 and rival and Optus owner Singapore Telecom rose 1c to $2.15.

Excel Coal shares plunged 40c, or 6.3 per cent, to $5.98 after it said this year's net profit could be cut by $40 million because of problems at its Millennium mine in Queensland.

The top traded stock by volume was gold and base metals explorer New Holland Mining, with 68.43 million shares changing hands. Its shares jumped 0.2c to 1.3c after it said its consortium bid to develop an Indonesian gas project was successful.