Stocks briefly edged into the red in early trade after US stocks dipped overnight following Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke’s comments that the current high oil price could slow economic growth in the US.

Meanwhile there were jitters on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange today after the release of a preliminary report highlighted Chinese manufacturing may contract further this month.

HSBC Holdings and Markit Economics’ preliminary purchasing managers’ index for March came in at 48.1, down from a final 49.6 in February and is the lowest since November.

Investors will be waiting with bated breath for the next economic indicator with US jobless figures to be released tomorrow.

Closer to home, the S&P/ASX 200 index added 19.4 points to 4273.7 at market close while the All Ordinaries gained 17.9 points to 4364.9.

The mining heavyweights had a mixed session. BHP Billiton added A10c to $34.80 while Rio Tinto dipped 67c to $64.67.

Fortescue Metals Group added 2c to $6.08 while OZ Minerals dipped 8c to $9.76.

Gold was sluggish in today’s trade on the news of a continuing shrinkage in Chinese manufacturing activities.

The precious metal was trading US98c lower at $1649.45 an ounce at 4:27pm AEDT.

Despite the price fall, Perseus Mining added A8c to $2.43, Newcrest Mining gained 58c to $29.35 while Alacer Gold Corp climbed 10c to $8.10 and Eldorado Gold Corp added 14c to $12.51.

Commodities also came off the boil today on the back of the Chinese manufacturing data.

Copper for three-month delivery dipped 0.8% to $US8396.20 per tonne, nickel shed 0.3% to $18,750/t while lead slipped almost 1% to $2025/t.

Zinc was one of the few metals to gain ground this afternoon, trading 0.25% higher at $2025/t.

One of the big movers on the Final Call watchlist today was vanadium producer Atlantic, which finished the session 11c higher at 58c after pulling a share purchase plan.

The company was seeking to raise up to $10 million via the share purchase plan in addition to a debt and equity raising package that would secure $41.2 million.

Atlantic also announced today that it had so far received $21.7 million of the funding package.

- with Bloomberg