Reuters: Hot Stocks: Australian shares finish higher on Wall St gains

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

Australian shares finish higher on Wall St gains May 20th 2013, 06:30 Mon May 20, 2013 2:30am EDT SYDNEY May 20 (Reuters) - Australian shares finished the session up 0.5 percent on Monday underpinned by a broad rally as upbeat economic data propelled Wall Street to record highs. The S&P/ASX 200 index lifted 28.2 points to finish at 5,209 after trading near fresh five-year highs of 5,246.9 earlier in the session. The index rose 0.3 percent on Friday. Companies with largely U.S. dollar-based earnings benefit when overseas profits are converted to weakened Australian dollars. Insurance firm QBE Insurance Ltd jumped 1.8 percent while pallets supplier Brambles Ltd rose 0.6 percent. Financials also rallied. Westpac Banking Corp climbed 1.4 percent while top lender Commonwealth Bank of Australia finished the session 0.4 percent higher after hitting an all-time high of A$74.18 during earlier trade. New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index finished flat, up 0.8 points to 4,598.6. (Reporting by Thuy Ong; Editing by Eric Meijer)

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