Sydney  - Australian stocks continued their strong run Thursday on the back of better news from the United States.

The ASX 200 put on 37 points, or 1 per cent, to close at 3,646.

The market is now up 17 per cent from the benchmark index's low of 3,120 on March 10.

"It's very much been focused on the top 50 stocks," said Martin Laycoss of brokerage Macquarie Private Wealth. "You would certainly expect the market to take a bit of a breather at some stage from this very strong rally."

Resources stocks and the banks have been the best performers. (dpa)