Most of the major trading markets across the world seem to have signed off for the year, and Japan's Nikkei was closed as well, but that did not stop the Australian market, despite weak trading, to close a little higher for the day.

In local stocks, coal shares managed to see a good day with Macarthur Coal's announcement that it is acquiring Gloucester Coal, which came in yesterday. Gloucester and Macarthur both gained 28% and 54 cents, respectively, to trade at new highs. Thanks to its coal unit, Wesfarmers also added 95 cents to its value to trade at $30.05.

The ASX 200 gained 35 points to hit 4,739 and the All Ordinaries index hit a three-week high by adding 32 points to reach a new figure of 4.756.

The rise in market is being viewed as a direct result of Dow adding 51 points in New York literally overnight, on the back of a much better-than-expected US housing sector report.

All sectors of the Australian local market rose, including banks. Westpac hiked by 53 cents to $24.68.

Miners and shares of crude oil also managed to make a place for themselves in the list of scoreboard leaders.