Australian shares are trading only slightly higher still through the afternoon, led by gains from the major banks.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index is up 10.4 points, or 0.2 per cent, at 5825.

Westpac shares are up 0.9 per cent, ANZ is up 0.7 per cent and Woolworths has climbed 1.1 per cent.

Ausdrill shares are up 6.8 per cent, Bingo Industries has climbed 5.9 per cent and Appen is up 4.1 per cent.

The governance at supermarket chain Coles has come under attack from an independent equity analyst who says the appointment of former Wesfarmers director James Graham as Coles chairman failed the "pub test".

Scott Ryall, who heads the independent research firm Rimor Equity Research, has also criticised Graham for selling $15 million in Wesfarmers shares between the time he resigned as a director of Wesfarmers and joining the Coles board.

Ryall says Graham appears to fit all the usual definitions of being independent but his appointment was "a great example of where prescriptive tests and definitions do not capture all circumstances

Chanticleer has the full piece here.

The $US10 billion ($14 billion) merger of Newmont and Goldcorp to form the world's largest gold miner, announced on Monday, is a response to both decades-long and more recent trends.

Gold miners have been pursuing scale via share-swap mergers for decades and the Newmont-Goldcorp deal will certainly deliver that. With an enterprise value of $US32.2 billion, the merged group will have a clear lead on Barrick Gold's $US25.2 billion and Australian Newcrest's $US14.2 billion.

The long-run influences that have driven the continuing pursuit of scale are the sector's declining reserves and grades, flat-lining production costs, the high costs and lengthy lead times to bring new discoveries into production, and the absence of really big new ore bodies.

Stephen Bartholomeusz has the full piece here.

Consumer confidence fell 4.7 per cent in January, as the cautiously optimisitc mood among consumers evaporated.

The Westpac-Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment, which had been sitting at 104.4 in Decemer, slipped to 99.6 in January.

The fall takes the index to its first sub-100 reading since November 2017, a sign that pessimists are now outnumbering optimists.

"The January sentiment fall is significant, marking the biggest monthly decline in over three years," said Westpac senior economist Matthew Hassan.

"January reads should be treated with some caution as the Index is adjusted to remove a regular boost to sentiment over the holiday season. However, even allowing for this, the update clearly marks a poor start to the new year."

Those agitating for change at ASX-listed entertainment business Village Roadshow are set to ramp pressure on a newly appointed custodian of governance on the riven company's board.

American hotel executive Jennifer Fox Gambrell, a former chief executive of London-listed Millenium & Copthorne Hotels and Toronto-based Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, is chair of Village's corporate governance committee following the departure of David Evans.

The Sydney Morning Herald and the Age yesterday revealed John Kirby, one of the two richlister brothers who controls the storied company founded by his father Roc Kirby, is pushing to oust his brother Robert Kirby as chairman and Graham Burke as chief executive. Along with Mr Burke, the brothers own a combined 42 per cent stake in the company.

Kylar Loussikian has the full story here.

The ASX 200 is up 10.3 points, or 0.2 per cent at 5,824.9.

Ausdrill shares are back up 7.23 per cent today, rebounding from yesterday's hit following the resignation of its chief financial officer, Theresa Mlikota.

Gold miners are broadly weaker today, with Regis Resources, Northern Star Resources and Resolute Mining amongst the worst performing stocks on the index.

Sterling fell from a two-month high versus the dollar and volatility levels spiked as markets braced for parliament to give the thumbs-down to British Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal later in the day.

In a voting session due to start at 6am AEDT, lawmakers will vote on May's plan but her recent efforts to win support for the deal look set to fail, despite her warnings that rejection of the deal could lead to Britain staying in the European Union.

Sterling is seen as having already priced in a 'No' from parliament, with investors focusing instead on the margin May loses the vote by.

Read the full story here.

Australia's major banks are putting in place contingency plans to deal with the uncertain fallout from Brexit, setting up subsidiary offices in cities such as Frankfurt and Amsterdam to ensure they can still operate effectively across Europe.

They are among the global businesses scrambling to work out how their operations will be affected if, as expected, British Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal is rejected by Parliament.

On Tuesday night (Wednesday morning AEDT), British parliamentarians are due to vote on whether to approve the blueprint detailing Britain's path away from the European Union that has been championed by Mrs May.

Sarah Turner, Hans van Leeuwen and Lisa Murray have the full story here.

China has put private sector tax cuts at the frontline of President Xi Jinping's battle to combat a slowdown in the world's second-largest economy with a package of rebates for millions of small companies that economists say is worth 2 trillion yuan ($410 billion).

China also outlined plans to make it easier for private companies to obtain financing and increase consumer spending as the economy faces its worst slowdown since the global economic crisis and uncertainty over threatened US tariffs.

The raft of measures and the joint appearance of officials from the country's central bank and two other powerful ministries managing China's economy buoyed markets in the region that were rattled by disappointing trade data 24 hours earlier.

Michael Smith has the full story here.

Australian shares haven opened only slightly higher on Wednesday with a very muted start to trading for most shares.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index is up just 1.8 points at 5816.

Commonwealth Bank is up 0.4 per cent and leading the market, Westpac is up 0.4 per cent and ANZ is up 0.5 per cent.

Ausdrill is the biggest movement on the index, up just 3.4 per cent, Infigen Energy is up 3.2 per cent and Syrah Resources is up 2.8 per cent.