Australia: Miners, tech stocks lift shares; South32 soars

[BENGALURU] 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 rose 0.79 per cent to 7,329.7 points by 0019 GMT. The benchmark dipped 0.1 per cent on Wednesday.

Major Aussie miners rose 1.65 per cent on the back of strong prices of zinc, copper and aluminium due to a power shortage in China.

BHP Group and Rio Tinto jumped as much as 1.4 per cent each.

Shares of South32 jumped 11.5 per cent and headed for their best day in 1-1/2 years as the company agreed to buy a 45 per cent stake in the Sierra Gorda copper mine in Chile for US$1.55 billion.

Australian technology stocks rose 2.23 per cent, tracking overnight gains on Nasdaq, where big growth names like Amazon.com and Microsoft provided much of the momentum.

WiseTech Global, which provides software for logistics companies, added 4.2 per cent to be the top gainer on the sub-index. Software provider Iress rose 3.3 per cent.

CSL climbed 1.7 per cent after the biotech giant confirmed its commitment to produce roughly 50 million doses of AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine into 2022. Media reports had earlier said AstraZeneca's shot would no longer be made in Australia.

Gold stocks rose 2.96 per cent as bullion prices neared a one-month peak overnight, helped by a pullback in the dollar and U.S. Treasury yields.

Gold miner Dacian Gold led gains on the sub-index, rising 7.32 per cent, followed by Pantoro Ltd rising 6.1 per cent.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index rose 0.63 per cent to 13,107.3. Elsewhere, S&P 500 E-minis futures were up 0.27 per cent.

REUTERS