The Australian sharemarket has finished higher, bringing three days of losses to an end as the big miners fired on all cylinders.
Strong commodities prices sparked a recovery by the miners despite falls on overseas markets overnight.
Bell Direct equities analyst Julia Lee said sharemarket gains in China had also buoyed local traders.
“The energy and materials space is strong and commodities prices did well overnight with iron ore up one per cent,” Ms Lee said.
“We’re seeing buying coming back through.”
Australia’s big iron ore-focused miners benefited from a boost in the iron ore price to above $US138 a tonne.
Global mining giant BHP Billiton was up 35 cents at $36.80 following losses of 4.5 per cent in the last three days.
Rival Rio Tinto gained 80 cents to $66.29, Fortescue was up 16 cents at $5.63, but gold miner Newcrest slumped nine cents, or 1.2 per cent to $7.16 and is at more than 10-year lows amid weak gold prices.
Atlas Iron shares rose 7.7 per cent to $1.19 after saying it’s close to finalising contracts for around 60 per cent of next year’s production after clinching some new deals.
Among the four major banks, Westpac was down five cents to $32.35, Commonwealth gained 25 cents to $76.80, ANZ added five cents to $31.76 and National Australia Bank had gained 19 cent to $34.38.
Electronics retailer Dick Smith debuted on the stock market, closing at its issue price of $2.20.
KEY FACTS
* At the close on Wednesday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was 17.7 points, or 0.34 per cent, higher at 5,273.8.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was up 17.9 points, or 0.34 per cent, at 5,267.5.
* The December share price index futures contract was 29 points higher at 5,283, with 31,428 contracts traded.
* The price of gold in Sydney was $US1222.13 per fine ounce, down $US0.04 on Tuesday’s closing price of $US1,222.17.
* National turnover was 1.7 billion securities worth $3.9 billion.
