The sharemarket finished more than 0.4 per cent higher following a wave of investor enthusiasm in Japan and the US.
CommSec market analyst Juliette Saly said local shares finished strongly after a slow start as Japanese shares pushed higher this afternoon.
"We've had a good start to the trading week, riding on the coat tails of what we saw coming through from offshore markets on Friday," Ms Saly said.
"We had pretty good movement coming through in the Asia region again which helped kicked things along."
Tokyo shares rose 0.92 per cent this morning thanks to a weakening yen and as traders followed another record finish for the Dow on Wall Street.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index rose 112.93 points to 12,396.55.
However, official data released in China at the weekend showed that Chinese inflation rose to a 10-month high in February while growth in industrial production and retail sales slowed.
Locally, Australia's mining companies lost ground as investors examined the Chinese data.
Global miner BHP Billiton fell 27c to $35.82 and Rio Tinto fell $1.26 to $63.10.
Among the major banks, National Australia Bank rose 54c $31.64, ANZ rose 8c to $29.20, Commonwealth Bank rose 30c to $70.13 and Westpac was flat at $31.25.
Building products company CSR was 6c higher at $2.16 after it announced it would cut 150 jobs from its glass business in response to the high Australian dollar and low construction activity.
Construction and mining firm Leighton Holdings rose 44c to $22.48 as its subsidiary Thiess won a $212 million contract for work on Chevron's $52 billion Gorgon project in Western Australia.
