WBCCD Westpac Banking Corporation

   By Robb M. Stewart 
 

MELBOURNE, Australia--A rebound in Australian resource stocks helped lift the equities market to a modestly higher finish Wednesday.

After being down as much as 0.8% intraday in a volatile session, the S&P/ASX 200 finished up 0.2% at 5248.3.

The baskets for energy and materials shares both gained more than 1% for the day, while the heavily weighted banks were broadly flat.

"The stock market's bounce off this morning's low reflects a degree of trigger happiness amongst potential buyers waiting for a catalyst to push the market out of its current range," said Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, adding that overall volume was relatively light.

BHP Billiton gained 1% after releasing first-quarter production numbers that were broadly in line with expectations. And it stuck with output targets for the year, even after cutting US$200 million from capital-expenditure plans for its petroleum division.

Rio Tinto rose 1.2% and fellow iron-ore producer Fortescue Metals Group climbed 6%, while gold miner Newcrest Mining added 2.2% after gold prices edged higher in Asian trade.

Among energy shares, which fell alongside mining stocks on Tuesday, Woodside Petroleum rose 0.8%. Santos advanced 2.8% and Origin Energy gained 4.5%.

National Australia Bank eased 0.1% and Westpac Banking lost 0.3%, but Commonwealth Bank of Australia nudged up 0.1% and Australia & New Zealand Banking Group rose 0.6%.

About 2.18 billion shares were traded Wednesday, worth 4.7 billion Australian dollars (US$3.41 billion), Commonwealth Securities said.

Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 21, 2015 02:15 ET (06:15 GMT)

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