MELBOURNE: Australian shares perked up Tuesday, with broad gains lifting the market in a choppy session. Resources stocks lent their weight to the push, as crude-oil prices continued to advance in Asian trading on fresh expectations major oil-producing countries will extend their agreed output cut and Chinese iron-ore futures showed further signs of stabilizing after a recent slump. That offset weakness in the financials sector, as National Australia Bank and Macquarie traded ex-dividend. Recovering from mid-session weakness, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 12.1 points, or 0.2%, to finish at 5850.5.
Diversified miners BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto were up 0.8% and 1.4%, respectively, and fellow iron-ore producer Fortescue Metals Group climbed 2.3%. Among energy stocks, Woodside Petroleum picked up 0.2% and Oil Search was 0.7% higher, but Santos slipped 0.3%. National Australia Bank dropped 3.5% and Macquarie lost 2.1%. For the day, 2.13 billion shares were traded with a value of 6.77 billion Australian dollars (US$5.02 billion), Commonwealth Securities said.
