The Australian share market has recovered some of its significant losses from Wednesday, buoyed by a strong profit from Telstra.

Shares rose in early trade after Telstra reported a 13 per cent rise in annual profit to $3.9 billion.

IG Markets strategist Evan Lucas said the market’s gains had ended three days of losses.

“We’re recuperating from what was probably a slight over-reaction to the massive sell off we saw on Wednesday,” he said.

The market rose even higher after the release of July jobs figures, which showed the unemployment rate remained steady at 5.7 per cent.

But the total number of people with jobs fell, in contrast to expectations of jobs being created in July.

The data caused the Australian dollar to fall below 90 US cents.

“It’s certainly looking fairly poor,” Mr Lucas said of the jobs market.

“It would suggest that things are slowing in the underlying economy.

“(But) the main story today is definitely Telstra.

“They are actually almost to the point of being a stellar result.”

Telstra shares were up 8.5 cents at $5.095.

Investors are also waiting on half year results from Rio Tinto, which are due out just as the market closes.

Rio Tinto was 22 cents higher at $58.82 and BHP was up two cents at $34.92.

All the big four banks were higher, with ANZ up 30 cents at $29.40, Commonwealth Bank up 43 cents higher at $72.51, NAB up six cents at $30.59, and Westpac was 19.5 cents higher at $30.735.

KEY FACTS

* At 1220 AEST, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 35 points, or 0.7 per cent, at 5,046.3 points.

* The broader All Ordinaries index was up 32.7 points, or 0.65 per cent, at 5,029.3 points.

* On the ASX 24, the September share price index futures contract was up 29 points at 4,995 points, with 16,667 contracts traded.

* National turnover was 556 million securities worth $1.5 billion.