WALL Street’s S&P-500 hit a 22-month high overnight and while the Australian market made slight gains today, it was unable to match yesterday’s performance.

Stock   ASX Code Close ($) Change (cents) Change (%) Vol (M) VWAP ($) Iluka Resources   ILU 4.14 23 5.88% 5.98 4.07 Murchison Metals Ltd   MMX 2.71 12 4.63% 2.00 2.65 Aquarius Platinum.   AQP 6.91 21 3.13% 1.83 6.82 Riversdale Mining   RIV 8.70 24 2.84% 0.82 8.60 Centennial Coal   CEY 4.07 11 2.78% 5.63 4.03 MacArthur Coal   MCC 12.30 30 2.50% 1.65 12.19 Mount Gibson Iron   MGX 1.81 4 2.27% 4.48 1.78 Aquila Resources   AQA 10.92 22 2.06% 1.10 10.86 Whitehaven Coal   WHC 4.98 9 1.84% 1.28 4.98 Lihir Gold Limited   LGL 3.15 4 1.29% 32.56 3.14 Western Areas NL   WSA 4.92 5 1.03% 0.95 4.92 PanAust Limited   PNA 0.54 0.5 0.94% 10.94 0.53 New Hope Corporation   NHC 4.97 3 0.61% 0.97 5.01 Rio Tinto Limited   RIO 76.99 29 0.38% 2.09 77.07 Kingsgate Consolid.   KCN 9.08 3 0.33% 0.42 9.14 Paladin Energy Ltd   PDN 3.96 1 0.25% 4.94 4.00 Eldorado Gold Corp   EAU 14.71 1 0.07% 0.25 14.79 Lynas Corporation   LYC 0.51 0 0.00% 12.60 0.50 OM Holdings Limited   OMH 1.73 -0.5 -0.29% 0.84 1.73 BHP Billiton Limited   BHP 43.16 -14 -0.32% 12.11 43.27 Atlas Iron Limited   AGO 2.44 -1 -0.41% 2.35 2.44 Newcrest Mining   NCM 33.97 -16 -0.47% 1.58 34.05 Equinox Minerals Ltd   EQN 4.09 -2 -0.49% 1.05 4.10 Energy Resources   ERA 19.74 -11 -0.55% 0.66 19.82 Andean Resources Ltd   AND 2.88 -2 -0.69% 0.31 2.88 Fortescue Metals Grp   FMG 4.90 -4 -0.81% 5.87 4.92 Alumina Limited   AWC 1.72 -2 -1.15% 21.28 1.73 OZ Minerals   OZL 1.15 -2 -1.71% 19.80 1.15 Extract Resources   EXT 7.30 -15 -2.01% 0.48 7.37 Coal of Africa Ltd   CZA 2.16 -6 -2.70% 0.28 2.17

After hitting a two-month intraday high of 4874.4 points very late in the session, the S&P-ASX 200 dipped again before the final bell.

The index closed 0.2% or 9.9 points up to 4863.1, while the All Ordinaries finished 0.22% or 10.8 points higher to 4877.7.

Materials in the US were strong overnight, but our miners were mixed, despite some good gains on the London Metal Exchange.

Zinc gained 1.7% to $US2317.50 per tonne, copper also added 1.7% to $7498.50/t, nickel was up 1.6% to $22,210/t and lead also improved 1.6% to $2226.75/t.

Comex gold for April was slightly higher at $1124.80 per ounce, while spot gold last traded at $1122.30/oz.

"We're coming to the end of the Japanese financial year, so from here there's little appetite to put on fresh positions," a Tokyo-based trader told Dow Jones Newswires.

“Gold is consolidating, while palladium remains the star among the precious metals.”

Nymex palladium for June gained 1.3% overnight to $478.85/oz.

Back home, BHP Billiton fell 0.3% or A14c to $43.16, while Rio Tinto went in the opposite direction, gaining 0.4% or 29c to $76.99.

Mineral sands miner Iluka Resources was a standout among the major companies, gaining nearly 6% to $4.14 on no news.

Nickel producer and gold hopeful Independence Group jumped 7% or 31c to $4.59 after news of the discovery of the Boston Shaker gold prospect at its Tropicana joint venture with AngloGold Ashanti.

AngloGold, which is listed but largely untraded in Australia, remained at $8.30.

After jumping 71% yesterday on good gold results in Papua New Guinea, junior explorer Frontier Resources jumped a further 22% to 9.4c today.

It was once again the most-traded resource stock, even exceeding yesterday, with more than 105 million shares traded.

Dynasty Metals was boosted by 49% or 9.5c to 29c after unveiling a 450 million tonne iron ore resource at its Prairie Downs project.

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