Reuters: Hot Stocks: Australia shares up 0.3 pct on firmer miners, near 17-month high

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Australia shares up 0.3 pct on firmer miners, near 17-month high Dec 12th 2012, 00:55 Tweet Share this Email Print Related Topics Basic Materials » Cyclical Consumer Goods » Energy » Tue Dec 11, 2012 7:55pm EST (Adds details, comments, stocks on the move) CANBERRA, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Australian shares touched a nearly 17-month high in late morning trade on Wednesday as miners rallied on higher iron ore prices and investors priced in optimism about U.S. budget talks, with the Federal Reserve's policy statement also due later in the day. "Definitely the momentum is to the upside," said Stan Shamu, a market analyst at IG Markets. "Everyone seems to be pricing in a fairly positive outcome to the fiscal cliff negotiations as well." Investor sentiment turned positive after U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said he remained hopeful about an agreement to tackle the fiscal crisis by the end-of-year deadline. Miners continued to lift the market on stronger iron ore prices, with Rio Tinto Ltd advancing 0.5 percent and Fortescue Metals jumping 3.3 percent. Spot iron ore prices rose to their highest level since July, backed by buying from top importer China in anticipation of a stronger pickup in demand next year. The S&P/ASX 200 index rose 0.3 percent, or 15.1 points, to 4,591.1 at 0031 GMT, extending gains into a fourth straight session. The benchmark climbed 0.4 percent to a seven-week high on Tuesday. New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index was down 0.6 percent at 4,001.9. STOCKS ON THE MOVE * Top miner BHP Billiton Ltd rose 1.1 percent after it said it would sell its interest in the Browse liquefied natural gas project to PetroChina International Investment (Australia) Pty Ltd for $1.63 billion. (0032 GMT) * Echo Entertainment Group Ltd jumped 3.1 percent , after it appointed John Redmond as managing director and chief executive officer. He will start in January. (0032 GMT) * Linc Energy Ltd soared 14.4 percent, following a 15.5 percent surge on Tuesday. The company told the Australian Stock Exchange on Tuesday it had no explanation for the surge and it had provided updates on its Carmichael coal project and clean energy technology in recent days. (0033 GMT) (Reporting By Maggie Lu Yueyang; Editing by Paul Tait) Related Quotes and News Company Price Related News Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above.

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