Reuters: Hot Stocks: REFILE-Australia shares down 0.4 pct from 19-month high; miners consolidate

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REFILE-Australia shares down 0.4 pct from 19-month high; miners consolidate Jan 4th 2013, 06:09 Fri Jan 4, 2013 1:09am EST (Refiling to remove extraneous text at the end) SYDNEY, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Australian shares eased 0.4 percent on Friday, with miners consolidating recent gains and investors taking a breather after some senior U.S. Federal Reserve officials expressed concerns about continuing to expand stimulative monetary policy. Top miners lost ground after hitting their highest since last February on Thursday. BHP Billiton Ltd dropped 0.6 percent, while Rio Tinto Ltd fell 1.0 percent. "After the big relief rally we had on the fiscal cliff decision and compromise, I would expect the market to consolidate a little bit," said Matin Lakos, division director at Macquarie Private Wealth. Statistics showed iron ore shipments to China from Australia's Port Hedland surged 25 percent in December from the previous month and total iron ore shipments in December jumped 20 percent to almost 26 million tonnes, the highest reading on record. Iron ore prices have been in a steep ascent over the last three months and climbed to a 15-month high of $149.80 a tonne .IO62-CNI=SI on Thursday, thanks to demand from China. Lakos said miners would continue to be supported by China's expanding demand for iron ore. "We don't expect a lot more out of the iron ore price, but we do see a pick up in volumes taking place as China continues to rebuild stocks," he said. "That's good news for stocks like BHP and Rio." The S&P/ASX 200 index was down 16.9 points at 4,723.8, according to the latest data. It rose 0.7 percent to 4,740.7 on Thursday, its highest since May 19, 2011. New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index inched down 0.2 percent to 4,075.0. Although trading volume was low, as is normal at this time of the year, the market has seen a high degree of retail participation, said Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets. "Individual investors are buying this market rather than institutional investors which normally dominate it," he said. "It's a unusual situation but it's a sign of growing confidence in the investment base generally." Major banks ended the day moderately higher, led by a 0.3 percent gain in Australia and New Zealand Bank Group. The country's biggest lender Commonwealth Bank of Australia was almost flat after shooting to a record high of A$63.35 during the session. Gindalbie Metals Ltd rallied 10.7 percent to A$0.31, the biggest one-day rally in more than 10 weeks, after it shipped the first shipment of magnetite concentrate to China from the Karara iron ore project on Wednesday. Shares in construction company Macmahon Holdings Ltd rose 1.8 percent after it confirmed receiving a conditional proposal for its construction business from Sembawang Australia, a local arm of India's Punj Lloyd Ltd . (Reporting by Maggie Lu Yueyang; Editing by Richard Borsuk) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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