Australian sharemarket rises as BHP, Rio gain

THE Australian sharemarket opened higher today following a mostly positive lead from the US and a stronger oil price on Friday. At 1015 AEST, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 was up 34 points, or 0.83 per cent, at 4123.8, while the broader All Ordinaries gained 35.7 points (0.87 per cent) to 4133 points. On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the September share price index contract was up 28 points at 4093, on 4515 contracts. The major miners were stronger, with Rio Tinto up $1.31 (2.28 per cent) at $58.86, and BHP Billiton up 15c at $37.66. In today’s market news, Virgin Blue said it was seeking $231 million of new capital through an equity raising, as it announced the departure of its chief executive and forecast a net loss for fiscal 2009. Virgin Blue remained in a trading halt over its capital raising. Its shares closed on Friday at 29c, compared with the capital raising price of 20c. Rival airline Qantas rose 3c (1.45 per cent) to $2.10 and dual-listed Air New Zealand gained 2c (2.56 per cent) to 80c. Wall Street shares drifted to a mostly higher close on Friday as investors mulled disappointing earnings reports. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 23.95 points, 0.26 per cent, to finish at 9093.24. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite dropped 7.64 points (0.39 per cent) to 1965.96 and the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index added 2.97 points (0.3 per cent) to close at 979.26.{dj:company}