Oct 14 (Reuters) – Australian shares edged higher on Thursday, driven by gains in metal-centric and tech stocks, while diversified miner South 32 surged to a three-year high on buying a stake in a Chilean copper mine.
The S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO rose 0.79% to 7,329.7 points by 0019 GMT. The benchmark dipped 0.1% on Wednesday.
Major Aussie miners .AXMM rose 1.65% on the back of strong prices of zinc, copper and aluminium due to a power shortage in China. MET/L
BHP Group BHP.AX and Rio Tinto RIO.AX jumped as much as 1.4% each.
Shares of South32 Ltd S32.AX jumped 11.5% and headed for their best day in 1-1/2 years as the company agreed to buy a 45% stake in the Sierra Gorda copper mine in Chile for $1.55 billion.
Australian technology stocks .AXIJ rose 2.23%, tracking overnight gains on Nasdaq, where big growth names like Amazon.com AMZN.O and Microsoft MSFT.O provided much of the momentum. .N
WiseTech Global Ltd WTC.AX, which provides software for logistics companies, added 4.2% to be the top gainer on the sub-index. Software provider Iress Ltd IRE.AX rose 3.3%.
CSL Ltd CSL.AX climbed 1.7% after the biotech giant confirmed its commitment to produce roughly 50 million doses of AstraZeneca’s AZN.L COVID-19 vaccine into 2022. Media reports had earlier said AstraZeneca’s shot would no longer be made in Australia.
Gold stocks .AXGD rose 2.96% as bullion prices neared a one-month peak overnight, helped by a pullback in the dollar and U.S. Treasury yields. GOL/
Gold miner Dacian Gold Ltd DCN.AX led gains on the sub-index, rising 7.32%, followed by Pantoro Ltd PNR.AX rising 6.1%.
New Zealand’s benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index .NZ50 rose 0.63% to 13,107.3. Elsewhere, S&P 500 E-minis futures EScv1 were up 0.27%.
(Reporting by Riya Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Ramakrishnan M.)
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