The recent report unveiled by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revealed that the total sales rose by 1.4 per cent to $20.08 billion during October, far exceeding economists' expectations of a 0.3 per cent rise.

The surging retail sales fueled the Australian dollar above US92 cents, causing the Reserve Bank of Australia to raise official interest rates by 25 basis points, to 4 per cent at its first board meeting of 2010 next month. The current RBA cash rate is 3.75%.

The mining sector was more positive, registering modest gain. The BHP Billiton crept up 0.54 per cent to $44.06 and Rio Tinto added 0.94 per cent to $79.32. However, oil sector gave a mixed look, slipping 0.32 per cent to $6.12, Santos edged down 0.27 per cent to $14.57 and Woodside Petroleum reported an improvement from 1.32 per cent to $49.04.

Despite of large positive leads from the overseas markets, with Wall Street trading on high and firm oil and metal prices, the Australian share market disappointed at midday.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index ended up 1.6 points, or 0.03 per cent, at 4,925.9 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index finished 7.7 points, or 0.16 per cent, higher at 4,947.2 points