Cooking on gas - someone must have hit the turbo button.
Sydney - Wednesday - January 4: (RWE Aust Business News) -
The Australian sharemarket powered to its eighth successive record high today, fuelled by strong buying among mining and energy stocks.
The All Ordinaries index closed 44 points higher at 4765.1 and hit a record 4767.7, while the ASX200 index advanced 44.3 points to 4820.3 and peaked at 4823.4.
In futures the March SPI200 contract gained 44 points to 4806.
Activity returned to pre-holiday levels with turnover of $3 billion, comprising 654 rises, 421 falls and 268 steadies.
BHP Billiton was the busiest stock by value with trading worth $373 million, and surged to a record $23.90 before settling 67c in front at $23.85.
Rio Tinto climbed $1.16 to $71.06 after peaking at $71.34 but Alumina retreated 11c to $7.38.
Among the goldminers Newcrest soared $1.26 to $25.94, Newmont climbed 37c to $7.66 and Lihir rallied 10c to $2.34.
A jump in crude oil prices spurred Woodside Petroleum 80c higher to $40.80 while Santos advanced 14c to $12.51 and Oil Search rose 5c to $3.83, however Caltex shed 5c to $19.15.
Telstra was one of the day's best performers, climbing 10c to $4.06 - its best closing price since November 22 - on turnover of 33.9 million shares.
Banks were quiet for much of the session but buying interest gathered pace in the last hour, leaving Westpac up 14c at $22.86, ANZ was 13c ahead at $24.04, National put on 15c to $32.52 and Commonwealth rose 5c to $42.85.
However, Macquarie Bank lost 48c to $67.20 and Suncorp-Metway gave back a 12c rise to end 16c weaker at $20.
AMP put on 5c to $7.73, QBE added 17c to $19.66, Westfield Group gained 24c to $18.24, Lend Lease advanced 29c to $14.70, Mirvac Group was 6c to $4.18, Bluescope Steel rose 7c to $7.05, Sims Group improved 35c to $17.70, Boral was up 12c at $8.25, Orica fell 10c to $20.42, Computershare lost 6c to $6.68, PBL jumped 18c to $16.74 and has now recouped the losses incurred since the death of Kerry Packer last week, John Fairfax gained 3c to $4.02, Tabcorp added 19c to $15.79, Wesfarmers was up 18c at $37.13, Leighton put on 5c to $17.84, Brambles rose 14c to $10.34, Qantas improved 3c to $4.10, Coles Myer advanced 22c to $10.42, Coca-Cola Amatil rose 11c to $8.02 while Cochlear slipped 17c to $47.10 after earlier touching $47.75.
In Tokyo the Nikkei rose 250 points to 16,362 while New Zealand's NZX 50 put on four points to 3374.5.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng had risen 213 points to 15,158.
Gold is worth $US533.50 oz and the Australian dollar is fetching US74.18c.
Ten-year bond yields were half a point firmer at 5.195 per cent.
