Australian share prices closed up 0.8 percent on Monday as financial stocks led the market higher, dealers said. The benchmark SP/ASX 200 index closed up 39.9 points at 5,026.1, while the broader All Ordinaries index climbed 31.7 points to 5,069.3. Market turnover was 1.02 billion shares worth 4.69 billion Australian dollars (4.15 billion US), with 557 stocks closing higher, 496 lower and 317 unchanged.
Traders said the strength among financial stocks was tempered by a weakness in mining stocks. "The miners weighed on the market, limiting gains today," CommSec market analyst Elvina Simpson said. Market heavyweight miner BHP Billiton slipped 1.8 percent to 36.47 Australian dollars while rival Rio Tinto dropped 3.7 percent to 111.66.
Australia's big banks all made significant gains - Westpac rose 3.4 percent to 24.35, Commonwealth Bank of Australia gained 2.4 percent to 44.48, National Australia Bank rose 2.3 percent to 25.72 and ANZ was up 2.5 percent to 17.78.
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Ltd performed well after reporting a 40 percent rise in net profit, gaining 6.0 percent to close at 11.41. Shares in investment firm Babcock & Brown Ltd fell almost 12 percent to 6.00 after it said it expected interim profit to drop by as much as 40 percent because of the impact of the credit crunch and sharemarket turndown.
"The energy sector was another big dampener on the market due to another four percent fall in the price of oil on Friday," Simpson said. Leading energy stock Woodside Petroleum closed unchanged at 51.50 but Santos dropped 1.3 percent to 17.00 and Oil Search eased 4.4 percent to 5.02.
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