Reuters: Hot Stocks: Australia shares cling near 17-month high

Reuters: Hot Stocks Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Australia shares cling near 17-month high Dec 13th 2012, 00:46 Tweet Share this Email Print Wed Dec 12, 2012 7:46pm EST MELBOURNE, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Australian shares held near a 17-month high on Thursday after the U.S. Federal Reserve announced new stimulus measures but warned monetary policy won't be enough to offset damage from the "fiscal cliff." Top banks were mostly positive but miners struggled to build on recent gains and energy stocks lost ground. The Australian dollar briefly hit a three-month high, before easing alightly to $1.0560. "Falling interest rates and improved sentiment towards China are likely to see Australian shares do well, but uncertainties about the growth and profit outlook will act as constraints," said Shane Oliver, strategist at AMP Capital. "Worries about Italy and Spain could trigger a bout of volatility around February/March, but overall returns are likely to be solid," he said, adding that resource stocks and telcos were likley to outperform over the year ahead. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was down 2.4 points at 4,581.6 by 0028 GMT. The index hit an intraday high of 4,603.5 on Wednesday and closed at a 17-month high. Oliver, who back in September predicted the index would be at 4,600 by the end of 2012, expects a rise to 5,000 by the end of next year. "While the year ahead is likely to see occasional bouts of volatility, returns overall are likely to be reasonable as global growth picks up a bit and monetary conditions remain ultra easy globally -- and become increasingly so in Australia," he said. New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index slipped 2.5 points to 3,992.7. STOCKS ON THE MOVE: * Iluka Resources Ltd sank 7 percent to A$8.02 after it said zircon and synthetic rutile volumes are near the bottom end of advised ranges, and market conditions for its mineral sands products remained challenging. 0025 GMT * Linc Energy retreated 14 percent to A$1.12, unwinding after two days of steep gains on the back of speculation Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich is interested in the company. On Wednesday Linc said it was unable to explain the jump since it closed at 81 cents on Friday December 7. 0024 GMT (Reporting by Miranda Maxwell; Editing by Richard Pullin) 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.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions