Iron ore miners pushed Australian shares higher on Friday with heavyweights BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto scaling multi-year peaks as storm disruptions in the nation’s northwest drove up prices of the raw metal.
The S&P/ASX 200 index rose 0.2 per cent, or 10.4 points, to 6,078 by 0037 GMT, but is headed for a weekly loss. The benchmark lost 0.5 per cent on Thursday, reports Reuters.
Spot iron ore rose 1.0 per cent to its strongest level in nearly five months overnight, boosted by the possibility of supply tightening due to threat from a tropical cyclone in Australia.
Australia’s metals and mining index climbed as much as 2.0 per cent to its highest in nearly 5 years.
BHP rose as much as 2.6 per cent, its biggest spike in over nine weeks, to touch its best level since November 2014, while Rio Tinto advanced 2.4 per cent to a near six-and-a-half year top.
Oil prices also lent support to material stocks after Brent crude settled at three-year highs on signs that global inventories were tightening.
BHP, the largest miner in the world by market value, also has a large exposure to oil.
