Resources bounce leads market gain

Australia's ASX 200 Index climbed yesterday, rounding its seventh straight weekly gain, led by Newcrest and Woodside after gold and oil prices rose.
"Gold prices are reassuringly strong and that's helped the gold producers; likewise for the oil stocks," said Paul Xiradis, who manages about $9.4 billion in Australian stocks at Ausbil Dexia in Sydney.
"The penny's dropped that Asian growth remains robust, commodities supply is still stretched and resources are the place to be."
The ASX 200 index added 38.50 points, or 0.6 per cent, to close at 6605.40 while the All Ordinaries gained 37.4 points to 6617.3
The ASX 200 advanced 0.6 per cent over the week. About five stocks rose for each two that fell.
Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 6.26 points to end at 13,974.31.
Dominic Vaughan, a senior dealer at CMC Markets, said it was a topsy-turvy week, starting with a run-up, followed by a sell-off on Thursday and a mild recovery yesterday.
"The market, to a degree, is standing on the sidelines a bit ahead of the payroll figures coming from the US tonight," Mr Vaughan said.
"That has been one of the main focuses for the week and will determine how well the US economy is going."
Mr Vaughan said Commonwealth Bank had a notable dip of 50c in intra-day trade but had recovered considerably towards the end of trade. Commonwealth closed 14c lower at $57.06. The other major banks were up at close, with ANZ ending 12c higher at $30.57, NAB gaining 18c to $40.76 and Westpac up 4c to $29.03.
The big miners were stronger, with BHP Billiton 35c higher at $44.10 and Rio Tinto up $1.37 to $107.65.
Newcrest, Australia's biggest goldminer, added 20c to $28.20. Lihir Gold rose 3c to $3.94 while Newmont dipped 4c to $5.03.
The price of gold rose as the US dollar ended a three-day rally against the euro, bolstering the appeal of the precious metal as an alternative investment.
Gold futures for December delivery added $US8.10, or 1.1 per cent, to $US743.80 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, ending a two-day decline. Woodside, Australia's second-biggest oil producer, gained $1.13 to $51.78. Santos, the third-biggest, added 50c to $15.26. Crude oil rose above $US81 a barrel in New York after an Energy Department report showed fuel inventories unexpectedly dropped last week.
The ASX 200's futures contract for December added 0.1 per cent to 6651.

The broader All Ordinaries Index gained 0.6 per cent, to 6617.30.
The poker machine group Aristocrat shed 17c to $13.84 after it said it would vigorously defend a class action brought by shareholders.
The media sector was mixed. Publishing and Broadcasting was down 1c to $19.83, Fairfax put on 4c to $4.75 and News Corp fell 22c to $26.64, while its non-voting stock slipped 25c to $24.83.
The retailers were all up. Woolworths was 41c stronger at $30.61, Coles surged 21c to $15.75, David Jones was 8c higher at $5.01 and Harvey Norman was 10c up at $6.
The iron ore producer Admiralty Resources added 5c to 53.5c after a survey of the company's Soberana and Negrita mines showed "promising data", Admiralty said in a statement. Cape Lambert Iron Ore slid 7.5c to 51.5c after cancelling the sale of a 70 per cent stake in the West Australian project to the Chinese investor Ding Liguo. Mr Ding had failed to meet the conditions for the transaction, Cape said.
Centro Properties, the second-biggest shopping-mall owner, increased 29c to $7.74. Centro increased its planned payouts to investors in Centro Retail Trust and Centro Shopping America Trust following the merging of the two funds.
Miner Oxiana gained 5c to $3.79 after negotiations for a merger with Zinifex reportedly stalled. Zinifex dropped 11c to $18.29. Pan Australian Resources, which is developing a copper and gold mine in Laos, added 1.5c to 81c. Pan Australian was rated "outperform" in new coverage by RBC Capital Markets analyst Paul Young, who set a price target of $1.10 on the shares.