The Australian sharemarket has maintained its early rally to hit a near six-year high.

The All Ordinaries index was around 0.6 per cent up by early afternoon, putting it at its highest level since June 2008, IG Markets strategist Evan Lucas said.

“It’s an incredible rally,” he said.

“It’s not surprising considering what we saw out of the US.

“So there is upside potential in the Aussie market, because the US year to date still hasn’t registered itself in the black.”

The mining sector drove the gains.

BHP Billiton was up 55 cents at $39.25, Rio Tinto was 57 cents higher at $70.16 and Fortescue Metals had gained 14 cents to $6.01.

The main drag on the market was National Australia Bank, as investors showed they were less than impressed with the bank’s quarterly update.

NAB shares were down 65 cents, or 1.85 per cent, at 34.51 after the bank said it had grown its cash profit by seven per cent to $1.55 billion.

Its net profit, which includes one-off items, was about $1.4 billion.

But the other big banks were in positive territory.

Commonwealth Bank surged 36 cents to $74.96, ANZ jumped 31 cents to $31.91 and Westpac added 24 cents to $33.34.

Santos shares were down 37 cents, or 2.56 per cent, at 13.91, after the gas and oil company reported its full year profit of $516 million little changed from the previous year.

Shares in James Packer’s casino operator Crown shed 68 cents, or 3.95 per cent, at $16.55, after the company said its Crown Melbourne normalised earnings were down 4.6 per cent.

KEY FACTS

* At 1217 AEDT on Friday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 31.2 points, or 0.58 per cent, at 5,443.5 points.

* The broader All Ordinaries index was up 31.4 points, or also 0.58 per cent, at 5,452.7 points.

* The March share price index futures contract was up 28 points at 5,409 points, with 14,446 contracts traded.

* National turnover was 686.5 billion securities worth $1.8 billion.