SYDNEY: Australian shares were marginally firmer on Thursday with firmer metal prices partly offsetting the impact of growing doubts that governments in Europe can contain the euro zone debt crisis.
Global miner BHP Billiton climbed 0.7 percent, as it warned shareholders at Thursday's annual meeting that some customers are starting to face tighter access to trade finance and some are cutting production..
Rival Rio Tinto was 0.9 percent higher.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was up 0.27 percent at 4,258.8 at 0011 GMT, slipping between positive and negative territory.
Rising French and Italian borrowing costs heightened concerns about contagion from the two-year-old debt crisis. Higher borrowing costs added to fears Europe would be dragged into a recession, one that would reach beyond the continent.
Copper edged higher in choppy dealings on Wednesday, buoyed by escalating supply-side threats at the world's second-biggest copper mine and upbeat economic data in the United States.
US consumer prices fell in October for the first time in four months and growth in industrial output came in at a better-than-expected 0.7 percent -- signs that the world's largest economy was gaining traction..
* New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index was up 5.3 points or 0.2 percent to 3,287.
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