Reuters: Hot Stocks: Australia shares rally; banks lead, miners recover

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 rally; banks lead, miners recover Mar 15th 2013, 00:47 Thu Mar 14, 2013 8:47pm EDT (Adds details, comments, stocks on the move) SYDNEY, March 15 (Reuters) - Australian shares rallied 0.9 percent on Friday morning, led by financial stocks after the U.S. Dow Jones industrial average extended its run of record highs and as miners rebounded from early losses. Top mortgage lender Commonwealth Bank of Australia jumped 1.2 percent to lead big bank stocks higher. Global iron ore miners BHP Billiton Ltd rose 0.6 percent and rival Rio Tinto Ltd 0.5 percent. The S&P/ASX 200 index was 48.8 points higher at 5,081.0 by 0028 GMT. The benchmark had fallen 1.2 percent on Thursday, its biggest percentage loss in eight days. The market has risen 9.3 percent this year on the back of a strong earnings season and an improving outlook for the global economy. "I think it probably doesn't have a lot further to go, but I do think earnings are turning the corner, so I think the market will generally trend higher over the next little while," said Tim Baker, equities strategist at Deutsche Bank. "I'm not really worried about serious pullbacks, just because I think earnings are looking better." Oil and gas firms helped boost the index after U.S. oil futures rose to the highest settlement price in two weeks on Thursday. Woodside Petroleum jumped 1.3 percent and Santos climbed 0.9 percent. Wesfarmers Ltd put on 1.6 percent and top supermarket chain Woolworths Ltd added 1.5 percent. Blood products maker CSL Ltd rose 1.3 percent and top telecom Telstra Ltd was up 0.8 percent. New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index rose 0.4 percent, hitting a record high of 4,400.2. STOCKS ON THE MOVE * Leighton Holdings rose 0.7 percent to A$21.84 after the construction and property company secured a $334 million contract. (0027 GMT) * Elders was trading flat at A$0.13 after the rural services company said sandalwood growers had approved the sale of their standing timber to Santanol. (0028 GMT) (Reporting by Thuy Ong; Editing by John Mair) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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