Reuters: Hot Stocks: Australia shares touch 20-month high, CPI awaited

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Australia shares touch 20-month high, CPI awaited Jan 23rd 2013, 00:34 Tweet Share this Email Print Related Topics Basic Materials » Energy » Tue Jan 22, 2013 7:34pm EST MELBOURNE, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Australian shares rose 0.3 percent on Wednesday, touching a 20-month high for a second day in a row as BHP Billiton gained after lifting production, although trade was constrained ahead of inflation data. Underlying inflation is seen at 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter and around 2.5 percent for the year. "Ahead of CPI everyone's just watching and waiting," said John Milroy, client advisor at Macquarie Private Wealth. "We are all sweating on the U.S. reporting season, as well and our own reporting season next month, probably trying to see some justification for some pretty heavy price moves we've seen already," he said. The Standard & Poor's 500 hit a fresh five-year closing high overnight. Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was up 15 points at 4,794.4 by 0013 GMT. A session high of 4,802.2 was the strongest since May 2011. "It's had a pretty good trot. The asset location shift -- out of what are likely to be lower returns in fixed interest and those types of things into equities -- makes sense to us. But whether the upcoming earnings results in February can justify the price moves, well, time will tell," said Milroy. New Zealand's NZX 50 index rose 0.1 percent to 4,192.2. STOCKS ON THE MOVE: * Top miner BHP rose 1.2 percent to A$37 after it reported a 3 percent rise in iron ore production in the December quarter. . 0017 GMT * St Barbara Ltd rose 7 percent to A$1.555 after it announced December quarter consolidated gold production of 92,691 ounces. 0017 GMT * Mirabela Nickel Ltd fell 6.6 percent after UBS cut its target price on its Toronto listing to C$0.75, from C$0.90. 0019 GMT (Reporting by Miranda Maxwell; Editing by Edmund Klamann and Stephen Coates) 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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