Banks stumble but miners help push market forward

The sharemarket closed stronger yesterday with broad gains across several sectors pushing it into positive territory.
At the close, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was up 24 points at 6212.2, while the All Ordinaries gained 24.5 points to 6197.8.
CMC Markets analyst David Land said gains by a broad range of sectors helped offset a drop in some of the market's larger financial institutions.
"The life across the market has been positive most of the day, but it definitely strengthened in the latter part of the session," he said.
"We've seen quite a bit of life across a broad range of sectors and it's been broad enough to offset some of the falls from some of the larger companies within the finance sector.
"Some of the notable gains came from BHP and Rio and there was some life out of Macquarie Bank today, which is back up over the $90 [a share] mark."
The big miners were stronger. BHP Billiton picked up 21c to $30.22, while rival Rio Tinto edged $1.14 higher to $84.89.
The banks were mixed.
Westpac gained 26c to $27.33, the Commonwealth dropped 5c to $53.10, and the National Australia Bank gave up 28c to $43.19.
ANZ dipped 32c to $30.88 despite the bank posting a record first-half profit of $2.10 billion.
The Bank of Queensland shed 71c to $17.90 after announcing it would transfer its credit card business to Citibank, resulting in a $26 million net profit.
Babcock & Brown Power gained 17c to $3.25 after the company increased its earnings forecast for this financial year.
Australian drug development company Alchemia put on 8c to $1.15 after it announced successful phase II trial results for its colorectal cancer drug HyCAMP.
Takeover target Summit Resources rose 35c to $5.95 after French nuclear giant Areva NC took a 10.46 per cent stake in the company.
Summit's suitor Paladin Resources gained 41c to $10.00.
The retailers were stronger. Woolworths picked up 13c to $28.65, Coles gained 7c to $17.23, David Jones put on 11c to $4.87, and Harvey Norman edged 9c higher to $5.16.
The media sector was mixed. The James Packer-led PBL added 15c to $20.50, News Corp dropped 21c to $29.96, its non-voting shares slipped 9c to $28.10 and Fairfax shed 6c to $5.13.
The energy sector was mixed despite a surge in the oil price overnight, and Woodside gained 12c to $39.35 and Santos put on 25c to $11.15.
Oil Search was steady at $3.65.
The spot gold price was slightly lower, and was trading at $US686.00 an ounce, up $US1.10 an ounce.
The goldminers were mixed.
Newcrest gained 4c to $23.60, Lihir picked up 1c to $3.02 and Newmont shed 3c to $5.27.
Junior explorer Jervois Mining was the most traded stock, with 107.9 million shares changing hands worth $2.8 million. Jervois added 0.3c to 2.7c.
Preliminary market turnover reached 1.84 billion worth $6.83 billion, with 665 stocks up, 601 stocks down and 347 unchanged.