Australian shares edge higher on mining boost; Ampol jumps

Australian shares inched higher on Monday, as gains in miners outweighed losses in financials, while investors awaited more earnings and inflation data this week.

The S&P/ASX 200 index was up 0.2% at 9,078.90 by 0047 GMT, after closing 0.3% lower on Friday.

Miners jumped as much as 2.9% to a record high, extending gains to a third straight session on strong copper prices.

Copper prices rose on Friday on a weaker dollar and after top metals consumer China pledged fiscal policy measures to strengthen economic growth.

BHP Group and Rio Tinto gained 3% and 2%, respectively. Gold stocks advanced as much as 1.5% to their highest in five months on strong bullion prices.

Gold miner Northern Star Resources and Evolution Mining gained about 0.3% each.

Energy stocks edged 0.1% higher, driven by a rise of up to 3.9% in Ampol after the fuel retailer posted a nearly five-fold rise in interim profit. Santos and Woodside Energy fell 2.4% and 0.8%, respectively amid lower oil prices.

Financials fell 1.1%, with the “Big Four” banks down between 0.5% and 1.7%, ahead of the July inflation report due on Wednesday.

Financials lost 0.9% last week in their third straight weekly decline as several banks, including Commonwealth Bank of Australia, reported a fall in mortgage applications since the government changed tax concessions for property investors in its May budget.

Among individual stocks, Endeavour Group slipped as much as 6.2% to a two-month low after reporting a sharp fall in annual statutory net profit after tax.

New Zealand’s benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index rose 0.1% to 13,981.74.