Reuters: Hot Stocks: Australia shares firm as miners, retailers gain

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Australia shares firm as miners, retailers gain Dec 27th 2012, 01:44 Tweet Share this Email Print Wed Dec 26, 2012 8:44pm EST MELBOURNE, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Australian shares rose 0.2 percent on Thursday, following a two-day break from trade, with volumes light post-Christmas as concerns about a potential U.S. fiscal crisis kept investors on edge. Miners gained, with BHP Billiton up 0.5 percent at A$37.06 and Rio Tinto advancing 1 percent to A$65.51, helped by a rise in copper prices. President Barack Obama is due back in Washington for a final effort to negotiate a deal with Congress to avert or at least postpone the "fiscal cliff". "The consequences of them not coming to some arrangement are very, very harsh and I think it's all politicking at the moment and we'll see some resolution," said Winston Sammut, investment director, Maxim Asset Management. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was up 10 points at 4,645.9 at 0130 GMT. It rose 0.3 percent in a short session on Monday. The gains came even as U.S. stocks fell for a third straight day after a report showed consumers spent less in the holiday shopping season than last year. "It's holding up alright. Monday might see a bit more activity because it's the end of the month and the quarter," Sammut said. New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index rose 0.3 percent to 4,071.3. STOCKS ON THE MOVE: * Fortescue Metals Group rose 2.6 percent to A$4.46 after announcing it will develop its Kings deposit to complete an iron ore expansion to 155 million tonnes a year, which was put on hold in September amid a cash crunch. 0132 GMT * Retailers rose in light trade. Department store Myer gained 3.1 percent while rival David Jones added 2.6 percent. Harvey Norman rose 0.8 percent. National Australia Bank said the number of its card transactions for Wednesday, when the annual Boxing Day sales attract thousands of bargain hunters, were up about 30 percent on a year earlier, with a peak transaction rate of 100 a second. "Like Christmas, Boxing Day continues to mark a rise in the amount of transactions processed by NAB systems on major shopping days," a bank spokesman said. 0133 GMT (Reporting by Miranda Maxwell; Editing by Michael Urquhart) Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above.

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