The benchmark S&P-ASX 200 index hit a high of 3703.2 points, up 3.5%, before cooling to close at 3680.2 points, up 2.8%, while the All Ordinaries closed 2.7% higher at 3622.2 points.
Wall Street recovered from recent falls with the Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining 2% to 7761.6 points overnight.
The big boys of the mining world made solid gains today with BHP Billiton closing 4% higher at $33.38, while rival Rio Tinto gained 4.6% to close at $57.96.
OZ Minerals gained 7.5% to close at 57.5c after the miner announced the first rail delivery of concentrate from its Prominent Hill copper and gold mine in South Australia to the Port of Darwin.
Analysts at Macquarie have given the Minmetals $US1.2 billion deal for OZ the thumbs up, despite concerns that the company’s capital position will still be tight until the deal is wrapped up in late May, according to an article on Dow Jones Newswires.
“If the bid succeeds, and we believe it will, the market retains a quality, transparent, effectively pure copper mining company of size and a strong balance sheet with organic and inorganic growth potential, and corporate appeal,” Macquarie says.
Macquarie has downgraded OZ to neutral from outperform with a price target of 65c, down from 83c.
In other commodity news, spot gold was trading 0.18% higher at $US927.9 per ounce at 3:45pm AEDT.
Newcrest Mining gained 2.2% to close at $A33.21, Lihir Gold added 1% to $3.38, Sino Gold gained 4.2% to $5.52 and Newmont Mining added 5.3% to $6.72.
On the London Metal Exchange, copper for three-month delivery gained 0.5% to $US4060 per tonne, nickel added 2.5% to $10,100/t while zinc fell 0.6% to $1312/t.
Australia’s third-largest iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group closed 1.2% higher at $2.61, while uranium play Paladin Energy gained 4.3% to $3.61 and Alumina added 5.2% to close at $1.41.
One of the big movers by percentage today on the Final Call watchlist was BC Iron which jumped 33.3% to close the day at 60c after announcing an updated measured, indicated and inferred direct shipping ore resource inventory of 50.7 million tonnes grading 57.0% iron for its Nullagine iron ore project.
