The local share market is higher at midday despite a flat lead from Wall St overnight investor confidence boosted by strong GDP figures for the second quarter. The S&P/ASX200 index is up 77 points at 4,481 and on the futures market, the SPI200 is up 85.

In local economic news: The ABS reports that Australia’s second quarter gross domestic product grew 1.2% compared to the first quarter, expectations were for 0.9% growth.

And the Australian Industry Group/PricewaterhouseCoopers performance of manufacturing index fell 2.7 points to a read of 51.7 in August, remaining above the 50 mark separating contraction and expansion.

To company news: Iron ore miner Atlas Iron Ltd (ASX:AGO) has increased the reserves at its northern Pilbara projects by 50 per cent. The company says the move paves the way for Atlas to increase production from the current planned rate of 6 million tonnes per annum towards its target of 12 million tonnes per annum by the end of 2012. Atlas says the increase in reserves takes the revised reserve estimate for its northern Pilbara projects to 53.7 million tonnes at 57.7 per cent iron, up from previous reserves of 36 million tonnes. Shares in Atlas Iron rose 3.35% to $2.16.

QBE Insurance Group Ltd (ASX:QBE) has responded to reports that the company is searching for a new CEO, as completely false. Recent media speculation has reported that the company has appointed an external recruiter to fill the CEO role. QBE says Frank O’Halloran will remain as CEO of the company for the foreseeable future. Shares in QBE Insurance Group added 1.21% to $16.69.

Turning now to market indices: All sectors are in the black at midday, the sector with the biggest gain is the Materials sector, with the index up 240 points to 11,938. Shares in Medusa Mining are up 7% to $4.28. Shares in Lynas Corp and Avoca Resources also higher.

The sector with the smallest gain at midday is the Health Care sector, with the index up 22 points to 8,214. Shares in Pharmaxis dropped 1.48% to $2. Shares in Ansell and CSL also lower at midday.

To New Zealand now and the NZSX50 is 18 points higher. Taking a look at the top 4 stocks by turnover: Heading the list is Telecom of New Zealand with stock down 1.46% at $2.03, followed by Fletcher Building, Contact Energy and Westpac.

To gold and the dollar: Gold is trading at $1246 US an ounce and the Aussie dollar is trading at 89.75 US cents.