With conflicting leads from Wall Street following mixed economic data and with flat leads from Europe, the ASX 200 had a slow start to the day, trading at 4292.6 points just after 9am.
With little data out to sway investor sentiment, a majority of positive earnings data released from some of Australia’s major companies, including retail and supermarket giant Wesfarmers, managed to tip the market into the black.
At the close, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 firmed 1.1% to 4330.2 points.
The All Ordinaries was also up 1% to 4353.5 points.
It was a fairly quiet day for local economic news which kept investors sitting on the sidelines.
However, the Australian Bureau of Statistics released average weekly earnings data for the 12 months leading up to May 2012, showing that full-time adult ordinary time earnings rose by 3.4% for males and 3.6% for females.
It was a slightly better day for the miners, with the basic materials sector up 0.5%.
After dropping 1% yesterday, BHP Billiton managed a firm 0.8% rise or A26c to $32.88.
Rio Tinto couldn’t find positive ground, with its shares dipping 0.6% to $54.75, while Fortescue Metals Group lost 1.9% to $4.12.
Shares in Alumina reached an intraday low of 71c after announcing a $US8.2 million underlying loss for the first half of 2012.
Alumina closed down 7.6% to A72.5c.
Meanwhile, shares in junior Peel Mining soared 179.6% to 26c after it identified more massive sulfide intercepts at its Mallee Bull project in New South Wales.
The Australian dollar was buying $US1.04.
