The Australian share market has opened higher off the back of a strong performance on Wall Street overnight.
The Dow Jones rose 2.11 per cent and the S&P 500 surged 2.39 per cent.
IG market analyst Angus Nicholson said it was shaping up to be a "pretty solid day" on the Australian Stock Exchange after investors in US banks were encouraged by good US manufacturing data and another surge in oil prices.
"We're seeing a spill over to our banking sector in Australia," Mr Nicholson said.
"That's really going to help the ASX a lot, because financials are about 48 per cent of our market."
The major banks were all trading well above two per cent at 1020 AEDT on Wednesday.
Shares in the Commonwealth Bank rose $1.65 to $73.06, ANZ jumped 76 cents to $23.83, Westpac was up 72 cents to $30.19 and National Australia Bank surged 69 cents to $25.37.
Mr Nicholson said the oil price rise overnight was "very reassuring" for Australian energy stocks.
Woodside Petroleum was trading almost three per cent higher, up 77 cents to $26.57, and Origin Energy was up 9.5 cents to $4.685.
A bounce in the iron ore price was has also put the mining giants in the green.
"That stability in the iron ore price and commodity markets in general will help underpin mining," Mr Nicholson said.
BHP Billiton climbed 36 cents to $16.39 and Rio Tinto was $1.10 higher at $42.45.
In recent BHP news, its part-owned Brazilian company Samarco Mineracao SA has agreed to pay at least $A7 billion over 15 years to settle a lawsuit over damages caused by the deadly dam spill.
With volatility out of the market, the only companies in bright red on Wednesday morning were the gold miners.
Newcrest Mining shares plunged almost six per cent, or $1.09 to $17.20 and Evolution Mining also dropped $10.75 to $1.723.
Australian investors will be watching for gross domestic product figures for the three months ending December 2015 due out at 1130 AEDT.
Mr Nicholson said the strength or weakness of the figures will impact the direction of interest rates and if GDP is lower, it will put downside pressure on the Australian dollar.
KEY FACTS:
* At 1020 AEDT, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 73.1 points, or 1.49 per cent, at 4995.4 points.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was up 70.4 points, or 1.41 per cent, at 5,060 points.
* The March share price index futures contract was up 97 points at 4,987 with 12,736 contracts traded.
* National turnover was 730 million securities traded, worth $1.28 billion.
