Australian shares open higher

The Australian stock market has opened higher, shrugging off a mixed lead from offshore trading on Friday.

At 10.15am AEDT (12.15pm NZT), the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 10 points, or 0.21 per cent, at 4828.1 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index had risen 10.4 points, or 0.22 per cent, to 4841.9 points.

On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the March share price index contract was 13 points higher at 4832 points on volume of 11,915 contracts.

At 10.17am AEDT, there were about 17 stocks up for every 10 that had fallen, with local banks and resources stocks opening the trading week higher.

Local market participants received little direction from Wall Street on Friday night, when the Dow Jones industrial average closed up 0.1 per cent, the S&P500 index ended 0.25 points lower and the NASDAQ finished down 0.8 points.

Crude oil prices were lower, while gold and silver futures contracts also closed weaker.

Copper managed a small gain.

RBS Morgans Brisbane private client adviser Trent Muller said the positive start to the trading day highlighted the attraction of Australian stocks compared with offshore equity markets offshore.

"We are going to be dictated (to) by short-term movements in overseas equity markets, but on a fundamental basis we are drifting up because we are still fundamentally cheap on an earnings basis," Mr Muller said.

"That's why you find, I suppose, our market is churning upwards, even though it is quite slowly."

The major miners were up at 10.36am AEDT.

BHP was up 16 cents at A$43.01, while rival Rio Tinto was up 67 cents at A$76.63.

Fortescue Metals was two cents firmer at A$4.96.

At 10.36am AEDT, the spot price of gold in Sydney was $US1,103.00 per fine ounce, down $US9.20 from Friday's closing price of $US1,112.20 per ounce.

Lihir Gold was down three cents at $2.98, while fellow gold miner Newcrest Mining was 44 cents weaker at A$33.77.

- AAP