STOCKS - AUSTRALIAN SHARES CLOSE HIGHER - SEPT 25, 2009

The Australian share market closed moderately higher on Friday driven by gains on financial stocks.

The S&P/ASX200 index was up 12.1 points, or 0.26 per cent, to 4,713.3 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index had gained 6.8 points, or 0.14 per cent, to 4,714.8 points.

AT 1615 AEST, the Sydney Futures Exchange, the December share price index contract was one point higher at 4728 points on a volume of 30,034 contracts.

RBS Morgans director of equities Bill Chatterton said the banking sector had lit up the market later in the afternoon.

"The sector that's really turned around is the financial sector after ANZ came out with an acquisition of an ING business.

"The rest [of the market] is fairly lacklustre, if you look at the materials sectors BHP and Rio - they're both off a little bit."

ANZ rose 30 cents to A$23.79 (US$20.57) after it bought the half of its wealth management joint venture with ING Group that it doesn't already own for A$1.86 billion to expand its footprint in the wealth and life insurance market.

National Australia Bank (ASX:NAB) lifted 55 cents to A$30.42, Westpac (ASX:WBC) added 61 cents to A$26.17 and Commonwealth Bank (ASX:CBA) rose A$1.30 to A$51.30.

BHP Billiton (ASX:BHP) dropped 17 cents to A$37.55, while rival Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) sank 94 cents to A$59.98.

In the US on Thursday, the Dow Jones fell 41.11 points, or 0.4 per cent, to settle at 9707.44.