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Miners lead way as Aust shares close up

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The big miners have led the way as the Australian share market recovered from early jitters to end a run of three straight losses and close the day higher.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index dipped almost 30 points in the first 20 minutes of trade on Monday but finished the day up 23.8 points.

IG chief markets strategist Chris Weston said investors were seeing a correction after last week’s negativity.

“Given the weak leads from the US and China, it was actually quite a positive day,” Mr Weston said.

“There’s an argument that the Australian miners have been undersold and underloved. We could be in for a bit of a bounce this week and I’m firmly in the camp that this is a dead cat bounce.”

Mr Weston said there could be good news for Australian equities when the US Federal Reserve meets later this week.

“I don’t think that the Federal Reserve are going to give us a smoking gun for a rate hike… on the contrary, I think they’ll let the market know they’re going down this data dependent route,” he said.

“There is some possibility of some respite in that US dollar strength which seems to be obviously one of the drivers in this risk off sentiment, especially in commodities.”

Newcrest Mining jumped 51 cents, or 4.53 per cent, to $11.78 and Fortescue Metals Group rose five cents, or 3.01 per cent, to $1.71.

BHP Billiton more than made up for Friday’s 23-cent dip by adding 25 cents, or 0.99 per cent, to $25.52, while Rio Tinto was flat at $51.19.

But Atlas Iron dropped 8.4 per cent, to 3.6 cents after resuming trading for the first time in more than three months. It suspended shares in April due to a slide in iron ore prices that forced it to close three mines.

Real estate was strong, with Westfield up 42 cents, or 4.45 per cent, to $9.86, and SCentre Group up 11 cents, or 2.86 per cent, to $3.95.

The banking sector was mostly flat, with Commonwealth Bank up 28 cents, or 0.33 per cent, at $86.09, while ANZ rose 6 cents, or 0.19 per cent, to $32.11.

NAB was flat at $33.91, while Westpac was up 12 cents, or 0.35 per cent, at $34.36.

KEY FACTS

* On Monday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 23.8 points, or 0.43 per cent, at 5589.9.

* The broader All Ordinaries index was up 22.4 points, or 0.40 per cent, at 5579.2.

* The September share price index futures contract was 20 points higher at 5,536, with 20,145 contracts traded.

* National turnover was 1.8 billion securities worth $3.8 billion.