STOCKS - AUSTRALIAN SHARES HIGHER AT NOON - AUG 1, 2003.

MELBOURNE, Aug 1 Asia Pulse - The Australian sharemarket continued to rise at noon on the back of strength in the United States market overnight.

News Corp, resources stocks and building materials companies with exposure to the US made good gains.

ABN Amro Morgans director of equities Bill Chatterton said BHP Billiton had performed very strongly in early trading.

"That's probably carrying a fair bit of what we're seeing at the moment," Mr Chatterton said.

He said there were some concerns about a big sell-off in the US bond market and rising bond yields.

"That's been holding the market back a little bit and I still think it is," he said.

"Irrespective of that, we've had some reasonable strength across our market here."