Market edges higher thanks to higher commodity prices

The Australian sharemarket closed firmer yesterday as higher commodity prices and a stronger Wall Street lead pushed the bourse up.
The ASX200 index rose 21.1 points to 5128.3 while the All Ordinaries added 22 to reach 5093.4 at the close.
On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the September share price index contract was up 4 points to 5104 on a volume of 10,436 at about 4:30pm.
An ABN Amro private client adviser, Bill Bishop, said the mining stocks and a firmer lead from Wall Street had buoyed the market.
"That's partly a function of the good performance of the metals market overnight - most of the base metals are up," he said.
"We've done pretty well but there are huge amounts of investment cash sitting on the sidelines waiting for an opportunity to get into the Australian stockmarket."
Rio Tinto lifted $1.31 to $78.56 while rival miner BHP Billiton rose 57c to $29.50.
US stocks rose on Tuesday after a rally in the shares of the semi-conductor company KLA-Tencor Corp erased early losses.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 31.22 to end at 11,134.77.
Australian banking stocks were mostly weaker, with Westpac down 36c to $22.17, the Commonwealth falling 30c to $44.90, ANZ slipping 25c to $26.45, St George Bank dropping 30c to $29.42 but National Australia Bank gaining 2c to $35.80.
QBE Insurance lifted 67c to $21.20 after it said it would issue £300 million ($737 million) in perpetual securities to replace short-term bank debt.
Insurance Australia Group dropped 5c to $5.34, Promina dipped 2c to $5.48 and Suncorp-Metway slipped 6c to $19.43.
Retailer Coles Myer fell 27c to $11.72 after it announced job losses yesterday after the closure of distribution centres in NSW and Victoria.
Woolworths climbed 4c to $20.08, Harvey Norman fell 3c to $3.82 and David Jones lost 2c to $2.87.
Internet gaming group Betcorp shares slumped 30c to $3.80 after it announced plans to quit the Australian Stock Exchange and make its primary listing on the second board in the United Kingdom.
Media stocks were mixed. News Corp slipped 18c to $26.67 and its non-voting stock retreated 27c to $25.28, while Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd eased 24c to $17.99. The Seven Network rose 8c to $8.42, Ten Network lifted 5c to $2.85 and John Fairfax rose 10c to $3.90.
Just before 5pm the spot price of gold in Sydney was $US641.00 a fine ounce, up $US13.75 on Tuesday's close.
Gold stocks were mixed, with Newcrest Mining falling 1c to $20.41, while Lihir Gold gained 8c to $3.10, Newmont Mining was up 14c to $7.36 and Kingsgate Consolidated put on 12c to $5.02.
In the oils, Woodside put on 64c to make $46.30, Hardman rose 14.5c to $1.94, Oil Search was up 6c at $4.26 and Santos was up 11c at $11.40.
Santos is in talks with Westpac to acquire Delhi Petroleum Pty Ltd for about $480 million to increase its share in the Cooper Basin ventures to more than 80 per cent.
The top traded stock by volume was Cape Range Wireless, with 230.54 million shares worth $1.32 million changing hands. The company's share price rose 0.1c to 0.8c.
Turnover was 1.24 billion shares worth $3.81 billion with 615 stocks rising, 443 falling and 304 unchanged.