Market back on the up as bargain hunters buy banks

The stockmarket closed in positive territory despite a flat lead from offshore markets. Big banks were the ones driving the bourse in an upward direction.
The ASX200 index closed 68.3 points higher at 5452.6, while the All Ordinaries was up 64.7 to 5432.5.
CMC Markets analyst David Land said mixed commodity prices and a flat lead from the US were not enough to drag the bourse into negative territory.
"There was a bit of mixed anticipation at the start of the day because of the mixed lead but the market got itself into gear pretty quickly," Mr Land said.
"What is driving the market … is the big banks. We have seen them sold off quite heavily in the past few sessions and it looks like a bit of bargain hunting.
"It was a pretty mixed session with commodity prices overnight but this hasn't held back the resource stocks … it is a bit of a reverse of what we saw yesterday with all of the major sectors in positive territory."
Of the big miners Rio Tinto rose 98c to $73.88 and BHP Billiton was 4c higher at $25.85.
BHP chairman Don Argus told shareholders at its annual general meeting in Brisbane yesterday that growth in north-east Asia would continue to be a major influence on the global economy.
The US provided a relatively flat lead after Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke's inflation warnings countered a rise in energy shares. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 14.74 to 12,136.45.
Monopoly wheat exporter AWB shed 4c to $2.78 after announcing plans to split into two companies: a wholly grower-owned single-desk manager and a purely commercial agribusiness company.
The banks were stronger with ANZ putting on 66c to $28.28, the National Australia Bank gaining $1.03 to $39.03, the Commonwealth rising 46c to $47.46 and Westpac picking up 43c to $24.30.
Property developer Mirvac lost 4c to $5.38 after announcing plans to buy a portfolio of properties and businesses from Walker Corp for $1.12 billion.
The retail sector was stronger with Coles gaining 8c to $13.46, Woolworths adding 40c to $21.82, David Jones picking up 3c to $3.79 and Harvey Norman edging 4c higher to $3.99.
Miller's Retail was up 1c on big volume to $1.64. NAB's MLC subsidiary said it had become a substantial shareholder with 5 per cent, having been a buyer since July at between 63c and $2.13.
Australia's largest grocery wholesaler Metcash rose 5c to $4.39 after posting a first half net profit of $66.13 million, more than double the figure in the same period last year.
The energy sector was mixed despite a rise in the oil price with Woodside gaining 44c to $36.52, Oil Search rising 6c to $3.31 and Santos shedding 2c to $10.26.
Media was mixed with PBL gaining 27c to $20.97, Fairfax up 10c to $5.17, News Corp shedding 26c to $27.30 and its non-voters down 25c to $26.07.
The spot gold price was a smidge lower at $US638.77 an ounce, down US11c from Tuesday's local close.
The goldminers were mixed with Newcrest gaining $1.31 to $25.73, Lihir edging 12c higher to $3.07 and Newmont down 5c to $5.85.
Focus Mining announced good results from three drill holes on its Perserverance block at Coolgardie, including 3m at 95.56gpt at a depth of 143m.
Some 29.6 million shares went through as high as 6.5c, before closing 0.6c higher at 6.1c.
Junior explorer Metals Australia was the most traded stock on the market with 309.4 million shares changing hands.
Market turnover reached 2.2 billion shares worth a total value of $5.9 billion with 692 stocks moving up, 478 moving down and 339 unchanged.