Reuters: Hot Stocks: Australia shares rise, reach fresh 17-month high

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Australia shares rise, reach fresh 17-month high Dec 20th 2012, 05:29 Tweet Share this Email Print Thu Dec 20, 2012 12:29am EST (Updates with closing levels) SYDNEY, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Australian shares rose 0.4 percent on Thursday, buoyed by defensive stocks while investor sentiment remained averse to risk over worries that U.S. lawmakers might not reach a deal in time to avoid tax hikes and spending cuts in the new year. The market also pared gains after Australia's centre-left Labor government abandoned a long-held pledge to return its budget to surplus in the current financial year, which ends in June 2013. The government blamed a very strong Australian dollar and lower export earnings for blowing a large hole in tax takings. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was up 16.3 points at 4,634.1 to a fresh 17-month high, according to latest data. It climbed 0.5 percent on Wednesday to hit its highest closing level since July 8, 2011. New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index jumped 1.3 percent to 4,075.5 points. (Reporting by Thuy Ong; Editing by Paul Tait) 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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