Australian shares edge higher

The Australian stock market has opened moderately higher led by mild gains on Wall Street overnight.

At 10.15am AEDT (12.15pm NZT), the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 11.2 points, or 0.23 per cent, at 4795.3 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index had risen 11.3 points, or 0.24 per cent, to 4,810.7 points.

On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the March share price index contract was nine points higher at 4800 points on volume of 32,353 contracts.

The contract is set to expire on Thursday at 12pm AEDT.

Oil and copper closed lower overnight, but precious metals ended higher

Among the major miners, BHP Billiton was up eight cents at A$42.65 and Rio Tinto was 41 cents higher at A$75.79.

Wall Street made modest gains overnight. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 17.46 points, or 0.16 per cent, to settle at 10,642.15, extending the blue-chip rally to the fifth session in a row.

The Nasdaq composite slid 5.45 points, or 0.23 per cent, to settle at 2362.21, while the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index ended virtually flat, up 0.52 point, or 0.05 per cent, to settle at 1150.51.

Macquarie Private Wealth division director Lucinda Chan said the local market was flat with both the finance sector and major resources stocks experiencing modest gains, while energy was the weakest sector.

"Oil prices pulled back a little bit and that's going to be a slight negative on the market, with oil sector stocks like Woodside dropping back a fair bit," Ms Chan.

Among the major energy stocks, Oil Search was down one cent at A$5.67 and Woodside was down 21 cents at A$44.78.

In news today, Rio Tinto said forecast global and Chinese growth in 2010 augured well for metal and mineral prices.

Telstra shares jumped eight cents, or 2.63 per cent, to A$3.12 after it sold one billion euros (A$A1.5 billion) of 10-year bonds.

Liquefied Natural Gas says the terms of the sale of its Fisherman's Landing project in Queensland to Arrow Energy had been changed to allow either party to terminate the agreement with one day's notice.

Liquefied Natural Gas jumped 6.5 cents, or 12.75 per cent, to 57.5 cents while Arrow was flat at A$5.25.

- AAP