Australian shares hit record high on miners boost; NZ climbs

Australian shares hit a record high on Wednesday, boosted by gains in mining stocks, with Perenti Global jumping after bagging a large contract from Sandfire Resources.

The S&P/ASX 200 index rose 0.53% to 7,331.6. The benchmark index had closed 0.1% higher on Tuesday.

The ASX 300 metals and mining index added 1.39%, led by a 4.41% gain in mining services provider Perenti Global. Mineral Resources Ltd followed suit with its increase of 3.82?%.

Copper miner Sandfire Resources, up over 4%, awarded Perenti a contract for open pit mining services in Botswana for an estimated value of $496 million.

BHP Group Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals all climbed more than 1%. In other global markets, Japan's Nikkei was down 0.46% and S&P 500 E-minis futures shed 1.25 points, or 0.03%.

On Wall Street, stocks struggled to eke out closing gains on Tuesday as a lack of clear market catalysts kept institutional investors on the sidelines, while retail traders fuelled the ongoing meme stocks rally.

Back in Australia, construction firm Brickworks Ltd scaled a record peak to lead the gains on the benchmark index. It announced an adjusted pre-tax earnings forecast of A$240 million ($185.74 million) to A$260 million for fiscal 2021, up from A$129 million in the prior year.

Technology stocks rose 0.46%, led by a gain of 5.15% in EML Payments Ltd. This was followed by Nearmap Ltd , which rose 3.53%.

The ASX 200 Energy index rose 0.29%. Whitehaven Coal Ltd was up 6.27%, while Washington H Soul Pattinson and Company Ltd, gained 1.94?%. Oil prices hit a more than two-year high.

Financial stocks rose 0.11%, led by NIB Holdings Ltd , up 1.62%. Credit Corp Group Ltd followed with a gain of 1.48%.

In New Zealand, the benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index advanced 0.28% to 12,552.5.