Half-time round-up:Takeover action and a well-received quarterly...

Half-time round-up:

Takeover action and a well-received quarterly report from CBA helped launch the Australian stock market higher this morning.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was up 73 points or 1.59% at 4667 after CBA's earnings and a takeover offer for AXA lit a fire under financial stocks. The financial sector rallied 2.1% on a morning when all sectors were green. Also notably strong: gold +2.7%, utilities +2.2%, industrials +2% and consumer discretionary +1.9%.

AXA Asia Pacific Holdings announced this morning that it had rejected an unsolicited and conditional offer from AMP and AXA's French parent company, AXA SA. AXA APH chairman Rick Allert said the board believed that the proposal "significantly undervalues" AXA APH.

Also helping sentiment this morning was news that CBA's cash earnings for the September quarter totalled $1.4 billion and Orica expects its profits to improve next year. Both share prices rallied strongly this morning.

Local economic news was mixed. Housing finance commitments for owner-occupied housing rose 5.1% in September, seasonally adjusted, easily beating economists' expectations for a rise of 3%. But the number of jobs advertised in major newspapers and online fell 1.7% in October, after two months of growth. "As an indicator of underlying economic conditions, these results highlight that the recovery of the Australian economy is still vulnerable to set-backs," ANZ acting chief economist Warren Hogan told Fairfax.

Gains in Asia were more measured. Japan's Nikkei rose 0.11% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.8%. Dow futures were positive at +27. The spot gold price pushed north to recently trade at $1098.40 per ounce. Crude oil futures also rallied, trading recently at $78.30 a barrel.