Wall Street was boosted by a lower than expected February unemployment rate.
The All Ordinaries Index closed 58 points higher at 5,868.
The ASX 200 has gained 61 points to 5,891.
In the resources sector, cyclone George continues to disrupt oil production facilities off the coast of Western Australian.
Woodside Petroleum has added 4 cents to $35.83, despite the cyclone shutting down some of its oil production facilities.
Weaker base metal prices have failed to pull down mining giant BHP Billiton, which is up 33 cents to $27.80.
In other news, Macquarie Bank has gained 63 cents to $81.50 despite the bank's chairman, Mark Johnson, announcing his retirement.
Mr Johnson will leave the investment bank at the end of March.
Australian insurers Suncorp-Metway and Promina Group are in a trading halt.
Suncorp-Metway is preparing to raise just over $1 billion to fund an $8 billion merger with Promina.
International building materials group James Hardie Industries benefited from the stronger than expected United States jobless figure, picking up 4 cents to $9.14.
At 5:00pm AEDT, spot gold was $US652 an ounce, and a barrel of West Texas crude oil had fallen to $US653.
The Australian dollar was buying 78.1 US cents, 59.5 euro cents, 40 British pence and 92 Japanese yen. - Source: Copyright Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Posted March 12th, 2007 by Armen Hareyan
