Reuters: Hot Stocks: Australian shares end up; Aussie dlr weakness helps, BHP rebounds

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Australian shares end up; Aussie dlr weakness helps, BHP rebounds May 17th 2013, 07:02 Fri May 17, 2013 3:02am EDT (Adds details, comments) SYDNEY May 17 (Reuters) - Australian shares rose 0.3 percent on Friday as firms exposed to the U.S. market benefited from further weakness in the Australian dollar, while big-cap miners like BHP Billiton Ltd rebounded on short-covering. BHP jumped 1.9 percent while rival Rio Tinto Ltd climbed 1.1 percent, which helped offset a weak lead from Wall Street overnight, analysts said. "There's some short covering going on, particularly in BHP after they were down the last three days," said Evan Lucas, a market strategist at IG in Melbourne. The S&P/ASX 200 index closed up 15.1 points at 5,180.8. The index fell 0.5 percent on Thursday, and posted a similar loss for the week. Savanth Sebastian, an economist at Commonwealth Securities in Sydney, said the soft Australian dollar was also helping the likes of BHP as well as other stocks with exposure to the U.S. market. The Australian dollars took another step lower on Friday, as renewed selling against the yen added to pressure on speculation that the U.S. Federal Reserve may taper its asset buying later this year. Companies with exposure to the U.S. market continued to benefit from the weak Australian dollar. QBE Insurance Group Ltd rose 2.3 percent, and the world's second-biggest wine company Treasury Wine Estates gained 1.4 percent. Gold miners extended their losses after the bullion dropped to a four-week low on Thursday as renewed liquidation in gold-exchange traded funds weighed on investor sentiment. Newcrest Mining Ltd declined 2.3 percent, while Regis Resources Ltd shed 2.7 percent. Most major banks rose, led by Australia and New Zealand Banking Group adding 1.3 percent, and top lender Commonwealth Bank of Australia advancing 0.5 percent. Consumer staples ended weaker, with Australia's biggest supermarket Woolworths Ltd losing 0.9 percent. Wesfarmers Ltd dropped 2.9 percent after the Coles supermarket owner downgraded its earnings forecast for discount store Target. New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index fell 0.8 percent, dropping 38.2 points to 4,597.8. MINING SERVICES UNDER PRESSURE Despite the rebound in BHP and Rio Tinto, miners have struggled recently on broad falls in commodities prices, with investors concerned about slowing demand from top consumer China. Investor worries were also raised after China's vice premier said the top iron ore consumer must "strictly prohibit" the further expansion of steel and aluminium. With miners cutting back on contracts, mining services have felt the pain, suffering a sell-off in recent sessions. WorleyParsons Ltd plummeted 12.5 percent after it cut its profit guidance to $320 to 340 million for Fiscal 2013, saying its business in Western Australia has been impacted by the soft demand for resource infrastructure. "Mining services are under pressure. It's continuing to see them ramp down on their capex and the big players are really hurting there," said IG's Lucas. (Reporting by Maggie Lu Yueyang; Additional reporting by Michael Sin; Editing by Shri Navaratnam) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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