The market has opened flat despite fresh records on Wall Street on the back of positive congressional testimony by US Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen about interest rates.
CommSec chief economist Craig James says there were impressive international lead-ins for the local bourse.
The Dow Jones and S&P 500 both surged to record highs after Ms Yellen pledged a cautious approach to raising US interest rates.
“US share markets have key indexes at record highs, as well as in the UK and Germany,” Mr James said.
“And the situation in Greece continues to improve – that one’s basically off the radar for a couple of months until we face the bailout program extension question again.”
But Mr James said the lower oil and gold price and higher Aussie dollar were headwinds for the resources sector.
Oil Search fell 5.5 cents to $8.24, while Santos was down 18 cents to $7.94 by 1030 AEDT.
However BHP Billiton was up 43 cents to $33.49, while Rio Tinto climbed 51 cents cents to $63.65, and Fortescue Metals lifted two cents to $2.48.
Weighing on the market were Telstra and Woodside, with both stocks going ex-dividend.
Woodside fell $1.71, or 4.7 per cent, to $34.74 while Telstra sank 17 cents to $6.42.
Among the latest batch of company results was Southern Cross Austereo, whose shares jumped 3.5 cents, or 3.7 per cent, to 97 cents despite an uninspiring first half profit.
Kerry Stokes’ Seven Group slipped by one cent to $1.45 after suffering a 74 per cent half year profit slump to $68.48 million amid soft commodity and media markets.
Westfield group plunged 16 cents, or 1.6 per cent, to $9.98 despite lifting its full year income five per cent and co-chief executive Peter Lowy cancelled plans to step down.
Among the major banks, National Australia Bank was 17 cents higher at $37.75, Westpac fell three cents to $37.94, ANZ put on eight cents at $35.37, and Commonwealth Bank lost one cent to $91.03.
KEY FACTS
* At 1030 AEDT on Wednesday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 3.1 points, or 0.05 per cent, at 5,930.1 points.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was up 2.1 points, or 0.04 per cent, at 5,892.1 points.
* The March share price index futures contract was 21 points higher at 5,906 points, with 6,981 contracts traded.
* National turnover was 2.98 million securities worth $9.23 million.
