The Australian Securities Exchange dipped from early highs to close only slightly in the black.
Earlier, stocks were buoyed following positive leads from Wall Street after the Federal Reserve kept its monetary policy unchanged.
The S&P/ASX200 index ended 14.8 points higher at 4375.2 while the All Ordinaries index gained 11.1 points to 4445 points.
Miners had a mixed session today after media firms took a tumble with Seven West Media dipping following a profit downgrade announced late on Tuesday.
BHP Billiton fell 5c to close at $35.03 while rival Rio Tinto gained 52c to $66.12.
The biggest mover on the Final Call watchlist today was Eldorado Gold Corp which ended the session 77c higher at $13.52, while uranium miner Paladin Energy gained 5.5c to $1.63.
However, it was a different story for Australia’s largest locally owned gold miner Newcrest Mining which dipped $1.07 to $25.53 while Fortescue Metals Group finished 13c lower at $5.68.
OZ Minerals closed 3c higher at $9.45 after the miner’s boss Terry Burgess said it was well-placed to take advantage of growth opportunities and his biggest focus for 2012 was growth – internal or external.
In the meantime, Kingsgate Consolidated dipped 7c to $6.18.
Despite reporting record gold production for the March quarter from its operations, the company lowered its 2012 financial year output guidance on the back of a 20% quarter-on-quarter fall in production from its Challenger mine in South Australia.
The gold miner revealed full-year gold output was expected to reach 205,000-225,000 ounces, down from its previous guidance of 210,000-230,000oz, after flagging a 5% fall in production guidance for Challenger.
In other mining news, troubled Queensland base metals producer Kagara requested a suspension of its shares pending an announcement to the market regarding a funding announcement.
The news comes after Kagara suspended its Balcooma mine and Mount Garnet polymetallic processing circuit earlier this week and suspended the Baal Gammon open pit two weeks ago and put the Thalanga mine and processing plant on care and maintenance last month.
The company requests the suspension until the start of trading on April 30, or earlier, if an announcement is released.
Rare earths company Arafura received a speeding ticket from the ASX after its share price fell from 30c on April 17 to an intraday low of 25c on April 24, with securities traded increasing during the period.
Arafura said it was not aware of information that hadn’t been announced which could explain the recent price change and volume increase.
Gold soared higher today after US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said he would do more to stimulate the economy if required, causing the US dollar to take a dip.
This afternoon, the spot price for the precious metal was trading $US5.60 higher at $1649.23 an ounce.
Base metals on the London Metal Exchange also gained in today’s trading in Asia.
Copper for three-month delivery was up 0.2% to $8220 per tonne, zinc added 0.3% to $2012/t while nickel gained 0.8% to $17,746/t.
- with Bloomberg
