Reuters: Hot Stocks: CORRECTED-Australian shares rise, miners capped by Chinese flash PMI

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CORRECTED-Australian shares rise, miners capped by Chinese flash PMI Apr 23rd 2013, 07:19 Tue Apr 23, 2013 3:19am EDT (In paragraph 3 corrects NAB's gain to 1.3 percent, not 3 percent, and in paragraph 4 corrects Santos's rise to 3 percent, not 9.7 percent.) SYDNEY, April 23 (Reuters) - Australian shares rose 1 percent on Tuesday led by finance and energy shares as Wall Street rallied overnight, but gains were capped by news of weaker Chinese manufacturing activity in April. Growth in China's vast factory sector dipped in April as new export orders shrank, a preliminary survey of factory managers showed on Tuesday, suggesting the economy still faces formidable global headwinds into the second quarter. Financials underpinned the index, with Australia and New Zealand Banking Corp. climbing 2.2 percent while National Australia Bank added 1.3 percent. Energy stocks were higher after Woodside Petroleum Ltd soared 9.7 percent when its board declared a special dividend of A$0.63 per share. Santos Ltd jumped 3 percent. "People expect the RBA (Reserve Bank of Australia) to cut interest rates further in response to what's happening in China," said Damien Boey, equity strategist at Credit Suisse. "So no surprise that the domestically-driven sector and the bond proxies in the Australian market have outperformed today. The data from China, Australia's biggest export market, weighed on mining stocks. BHP Billiton Ltd dropped 1.1 percent while rival iron ore miner Rio Tinto Ltd plummeted 2.3 percent. Iluka Resources Ltd closed 1.8 percent lower. The S&P/ASX 200 index rose 49.6 points to finish at 5,016.2 according to the latest data. The benchmark rose 0.7 percent on Monday. Weak metals prices also hurt confidence in miners. Copper slipped on Tuesday back towards an 18-month low after China's flash PMI underscored fitful growth, fuelling concerns over demand in the world's top metals consumer. Defensives were also firmer, headed by leading telecommunications provider Telstra Ltd rallying 1.7 percent. Consumer staples Woolworths Ltd and Wesfarmers Ltd both jumped 1.7 percent and 2.8 percent respectively. The latest PMI release comes after data last week showed the recovery in China's economy unexpectedly stumbled in the first quarter. "While the ASX 200 is strong, the remainder of the region looks weak," said Chris Weston, chief market strategist at IG Markets. "European manufacturing and services PMIs will be the next part of the growth jigsaw and expectations are for a relatively unchanged picture in the April flash estimates." U.S. stocks climbed on Monday as last week's sharp losses brought buyers back to the market and Microsoft Corp shares jumped after an activist investor took a stake in the company. New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index finished the session up 0.7 percent, or 32.8 points to 4,516.5. (Reporting by Thuy Ong Additional reporting by Michael Sin; Editing by Eric Meijer) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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