THE sharemarket enjoyed a bumper day, closing almost 1.5 per cent higher on positive overseas leads.
the close today, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 71.3 points, or 1.45 per cent, at 4976.8 points.
The broader All Ordinaries index was up 67.5 points, or 1.37 per cent, at 4980.2 points.
Lower-than-expected inflation in China in March appears to have convinced traders that the central bank there might not need to slow the economy.
The local market was already posting gains before that news, taking its lead from expectations for an improved company earnings season in the US and moves by Japan to stimulate its economy.
"Even though our markets had the wobbles a bit recently, there's still quite a lot of latent buying and people looking to get into this market once it starts to move," CMC Markets chief market analyst Ric Spooner said.
Most sectors did well, such as banks, insurers, miners and energy stocks, with defensive healthcare companies an exception.
Miners gained from the good economic news from important customers including China and Japan.
BHP Billiton was up by more than 1 per cent for a second consecutive day, rising 45c to $33.11 and Rio Tinto was up $1.89, or 3.45 per cent, to $56.73.
Ten Network rose 2c to 31.5c despite the broadcaster posting a $243.3 million first-half loss.
Africa-focused iron ore hopeful Sundance Resources plunged 10c, or 47.6 per cent, to 11c after coming out of a three-week trading halt.
Sundance revealed late yesterday that it had ended talks with Hanlong Mining after the Chinese company ran into problems financing a $1.3 billion takeover deal.
The June share price index futures contract was up 58 points at 4969 points, with 27,027 contracts traded.
National turnover was 1.91 billion securities worth $5.49bn.