Shares on the way back up as Rio Tinto heads to a ton

Shares reversed their three-day trend and ended higher yesterday, as resource stocks made a solid recovery.
The ASX 200 index closed 81.4 points higher at 6265.6, while the All Ordinaries was up 80.8 points to 6297.4.
On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the September share price index contract rose 62 points to 6276, a 10 point premium to the ASX 200 physical, on a volume of 25,237 contracts.
Bell Potter analyst Stuart Smith said the market had suffered from a knee-jerk reaction, based on US jitters, but is beginning to get over the speed hump.
"The new financial year will see super fund money being invested," he said.
"We've had a nice rebound on what is option expiry day."
He noted that market turnover would be more than $7 billion.
"That's a good day's work," he said.
But Mr Smith said that his prime mover for the day was unfortunately not a gainer.
"The stand-out is the negative one of Coles," Mr Smith said.
Coles lost 14c to $16.14, after a private equity group led by TPG said it would not be putting in an offer for the retailer by the Saturday deadline.
Elsewhere in retail, Woolworths climbed 6c to $26.63, David Jones was 7c higher at $5.45 and third-force grocer Metcash was up 1c to $4.53.
Womenswear chain Noni B was up 2c to $4.22.
But Mr Smith pointed to the resource sector, which had a strong day of trade, adding that diversified miners BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto would "really show us what they can do in the next six months".
The world's biggest miner BHP Billiton was 69c richer at $34.89, while rival Rio Tinto rose $2.61 to $98.36.
Energy companies also made gains with Santos 20c higher at $14 and Woodside firming $1.35 to $14. Oil Search was up 8c to $4.22, AWE was up a penny to $3.49 and gas retailer Origin was 8c higher at $9.84.
The Sydney spot gold price closed $US4.70 firmer at $US645.50 per fine ounce.
Goldminers were also higher, with Lihir rising 9c to $3.00 and Newmont picked up 7c to $4.61. Newcrest was unchanged at $22.86.
Banks were in positive territory as the Commonwealth advanced 95c to $55.39, NAB put on 77c to $40.92, ANZ swelled 36c to $29.01 and Westpac found 25c to $25.42. St George was 42c better at $35.27.
Suncorp was 33c higher at $20.33 and rival insurer IAG was up 2c at $5.72.

The local bourse was given a huge boost by Wall St, where US stocks rose on Wednesday as investors snapped up shares after a three-day price slide. The Dow Jones industrial average had finished 90 points higher at 13,427.
Media stocks were mixed, PBL rising 7c to $19.42 and Fairfax ahead 5c to $4.71 but News Corp lost 10c to $27.30 and its non-voters shed 15c to $25.29.
In the pharmaceutical sector, Australian Pharmaceuticals Industries posted a loss for the full year and said it still had work to do, sending its shares down 9c to $2.20. Rival Sigma also dropped 3c, to close at $2.15.
The most traded stock of the day was Cullen Resources, a gold, nickel and copper explorer with projects in Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales, with 148.93 million shares worth $11.16 million changing hands.
Its shares finished just 0.1c higher at 7c each on a day when the company issued a statement saying it knew of no reason for a rise in its share price, in response to a speeding ticket from the stockmarket regulator.
Preliminary overall market turnover was 2.2 billion shares worth a combined $7.43 billion, with 848 companies ending higher, 495 lower and 38 unchanged.