Investors chase miners and banks

The sharemarket staged a fightback yesterday with a strong lead from Wall Street helping to boost the big banking and resource stocks.
Man Financial senior adviser Anthony Anderson said the market had a "much better day" and had been boosted by indications that US interest rates could soon stop rising.
"At the end of tightening cycles we generally see very strong markets and people are starting to get wind of this," he said.
After a series of falls this week, the ASX 200 index climbed 96.4 points to 4996.5 while the All Ordinaries rose 86.1 to 4967.4.
The strong local gains came after a rally on Wall Street overnight, where comments from the Federal Reserve chairman hinted the central bank could be close to ending its campaign of interest rate rises.
The Dow Jones index soared 212.19 points to 11,011.42.
The big mining stocks made strong gains with BHP Billiton shooting up $1.57 to $28.80 and Rio Tinto racing ahead $3.26 to $75.71 after a solid second quarter production report.
Mid-tier miners also moved ahead with Oxiana climbing 17c to $3.28 after reaffirming its full-year gold production forecast and Iluka rising 17c to $6.84 after boosting production and revenue in the second quarter. Bendigo was up 1.5c at $1.545.
In banking, NAB rose 88c to $34.75, the Commonwealth jumped $1.10 to $44.15, Westpac gained 72c to $22.07 and ANZ rose 64c to $25.29.
Macquarie Bank rose 13c to $62.95 after lifting its profit in the first quarter and saying it expected a higher annual result.
PBL fell 14c to $17.78, John Fairfax dipped 2c to $4.03 but Ten Network rose 2c to $2.92.
Oil and gas stocks were mixed with Santos rising 14c to $11.40 while Woodside sank $1.90 to $43.90 after its record-breaking half-year revenue was tarnished by problems at the Chinguetti oilfield in Mauritania.
CuDeco had another roller-coaster ride after extending the size of its Las Minerale deposit. Shares in the former Australian Mining Investments soared to $3.79, up $1.51 or 66.2 per cent.
The Adelaide oil and gas explorer Austin Exploration - which has prospects in Australia, the US and India - listed at 22.5c, up on its issue price of 20c, before closing at 20c.
Securities in Pelorus Property Group listed at a 5c premium to its 50c issue price and closed at 60.5c, off a high of 65c.
Takeover target Colorado Group rose 6c to $4.58 after the clothing and shoe retailer said predator Affinity Equity Partners had indicated an offer of $4.68 cash per share in confidential and private approaches.
Metcash rose 6c to $3.87 after the grocery wholesaler said the integration of Foodland was on track to generate forecast earnings benefits.
Elsewhere, Coles Myer fell 10c to $11.45 and Woolworths dropped 30c to $19.30. David Jones rose 1c to $2.85 after it revealed plans to open new shops and add fresh brands.
Telstra put on 2c to $3.80 while Telecom NZ added 3c to $3.39 and was the top traded stock of the day with 72.68 million shares worth $241.72 million changing hands.
Gold stocks were mixed with Newcrest dropping 7c to $18.72, Lihir up 11c to $2.86 and Kingsgate rising 4c to $4.64.