Reuters: Hot Stocks: Banks lead Australian shares up, weak miners cap gains

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Banks lead Australian shares up, weak miners cap gains Apr 29th 2013, 00:27 Sun Apr 28, 2013 8:27pm EDT (Updates to open) SYDNEY, April 29 (Reuters) - Australian shares edged 0.4 percent higher on Monday morning led by the financial sector, but gains were capped by weakness in metals prices and disappointing U.S. first-quarter growth figures. Top lender the Commonwealth Bank of Australia jumped 1 percent, while Westpac Banking Corp climbed 1.1 percent. Weak metals prices hurt mining stocks, with global miners BHP Billiton Ltd losing 0.8 percent and Rio Tinto Ltd dropping 0.9 percent. Copper fell more than 2 percent on Friday and iron ore prices drifted to five week lows as some investors closed their positions ahead of the Golden Week holiday in China that has thinned demand already hurt by a shaky steel market. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index added 22.1 points to 5,119.6 by 0014 GMT. The market lost 0.1 percent on Friday, but posted its biggest weekly gain since December 2011 of 3.4 percent. Last week's advance was underpinned by buying in previously beaten down sectors and demand for financial stocks for their attractive dividend yields. Global growth concerns have taken the shine off Australia's markets in recent weeks following a robust start in the first two months of the year. On Friday, U.S. data showed gross domestic product expanded at a 2.5 percent rate in the first quarter, below estimates of 3 percent, heightening fears the economy could struggle to cope with deep government spending cuts and higher taxes that kicked in earlier this year. New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index added 0.3 percent to 4,561 points. (Reporting by Thuy Ong; Editing by Shri Navaratnam) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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