Aust stocks open stronger

The Australian sharemarket opened higher after Wall Street rose for its third session on positive economic news.

At the 10.15am (AEST) official market open, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index rose 23.2 points, or 0.43%, to 5,443.5 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index gained 23.2 points, or 0.43%, to 5,435.8.

March US home construction and industrial production bolstered sentiment while the Federal Reserve's Beige Book on US economic conditions confirmed the central bank's view that recent weakness was largely due to bad winter weather.

Locally, in economic news on Thursday, the National Australia Bank's business survey for the March quarter is due to be released, as is the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) new motor vehicle sales data for the same month and the ABS International merchandise imports, also for March.

In Australia, the market on Wednesday closed higher as investors were encouraged by good US corporate earnings reports and shrugged off China's economic growth figures.