The share market is higher as the diversified mining giants weather falling commodity prices better than smaller oil and gas producers.
Investors appeared to overlook disappointing economic growth data, and instead focused on crude oil prices falling again, which hit energy stocks harder.
“It’s having a significant impact on the smaller players making it much more difficult for them to compete,” Morgans senior client adviser Bill Chatterton said.
Mining giant BHP Billiton added 10 cents at $30.50, Rio Tinto found 15 cents to $58.08 and Fortescue Metals firmed 14 cents to $2.71.
But oil and gas players had mixed results, with Woodside Petroleum adding 79 cents, or 2.3 per cent, to $35.65 as Santos fell 12 cents to $9.07 and Oil Search lost half a cent to $7.695.
Troubled broadcaster Ten Network was off 1.5 cents at 22.5 cents after it received a number of non-binding proposals it says could lead to a takeover or a debt refinancing.
Supermarket titan Woolworths lifted 50 cents to $30.74 after it bought one of China’s largest alcoholic drinks distributors.
Among the major banks, Commonwealth Bank lifted 59 cents to $81.33, National Australia Bank added 20 cents to $32.59, Westpac found 25 cents at $32.98, and ANZ rose 30 cents to $32.02.
Health insurer Medibank Private was flat at $2.14, below the $2.15 level paid by institutional investors.
The overall share market had little reaction to news Australia’s gross domestic product rose by 0.3 per cent in the September quarter, which was much weaker than the 0.7 per cent rise economists were expecting.
That took annual growth in to September to 2.7 per cent, below the 3.1 per cent forecast by economists.
KEY FACTS
* At 1200 AEDT on Wednesday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 42.1 points, or 0.8 per cent, at 5,323.4 points.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was up 40.8 points, or 0.78 per cent, at 5,300.8 points.
* The December share price index futures contract was 38 points higher at 5,328 points, with 18,052 contracts traded.
* National turnover was 636.9 million securities worth $1.6 billion.
