The Australian share market has opened higher despite a fall on Wall Street, supported by gains in the financial and resources sectors.

At 1029 AEDT on Friday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 16.6 points, or 0.34%, at 4,895.4, and the broader All Ordinaries index was up 15.9 points, or 0.32%, at 4,916.9.

On the ASX 24, the March share price index futures contract was 15 points higher at 4,860 with 7,612 contracts traded.

US stocks have finished lower due to disappointing company profit results.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 49.84 points, or 0.36%, to 13,860.58.

Locally, resources stocks were higher, with BHP Billiton trading at $37.84, up 36 cents.

Rio Tinto also climbed 57 cents to $66.93, and Fortescue Metals was up 8.5 cents to $4.765.

“We’re seeing iron ore prices moving up once again so that’s been a positive for that space,” said Julia Lee, equities analyst at Bell Direct.

“The big four banks are also moving higher – we’re seeing a gain of about 0.3 to 0.6%.

“The fact that we’re seeing two of our biggest sectors moving higher is boding well for the market today; it does follow on from a negative session yesterday, however, in the last 11 sessions we’ve seen ten sessions of gains.”

ANZ was up nine cents to $26.67, Commonwealth Bank was up 33 cents to 64.78, NAB was up 21 cents to $27.57, and Westpac climbed eight cents to $28.12.

Making news, Adventure wear retailer Kathmandu has upgraded its profit forecast after better-than-expected sales in the first half of the financial year.

“This is important – we’re seeing a strong result for the first half, and given that Kathmandu tends to make most of its profit in the second half it does imply that we’re going to see quite a strong result for the full year,” Ms Lee said.

Kathmandu jumped 5.37%, or 9.5 cents, to $1.865.

Myer and David Jones were both higher, with Myer trading at $2.495, up by 0.5 cents, and David Jones up by one cent to $2.51.

National turnover at 1042 AEDT was 309.9 million shares worth $513.4 million.