The ASX surged earlier on strong leads from Wall Street and Europe, which both mirrored the strong performance of the Australian and Asian markets yesterday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 2.54% overnight to 10,269.47, and London’s FTSE 100 gained 2.7% to 5366.41.
The Australian market also took off in early morning trading, with the S&P-ASX 200 hitting a high of 4552.4 shortly after the open on an overnight close of 4495.7.
Those gains started to soften almost immediately, however, and the index closed the day at 4532.7.
Metals and mining stocks beat the rest of the market again, however, on stronger commodity prices overnight.
Most of the major commodities were up on the London Metal Exchange overnight, led by zinc for three-month delivery, which gained 3.29% to $US2133 per tonne.
Three-month copper gained 2.23% to $7606/t and nickel rose 1.7% to $21,050/t.
The S&P-ASX 300 Metals and Mining index closed the day at 4315.9, up 0.9%, and most of the big miners also posted gains.
That’s despite the introduction of the Labor party’s proposed Minerals Resource Rent Tax becoming more likely, as Tasmanian independent Andrew Wilkie announced he will join the Greens in supporting the return of a Julia Gillard-led government.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbot also had a bad day after Treasury blew a $7 billion hole in the costing of the opposition’s election promises.
There’s still a possibility that the three remaining independents will support Abbott; however, Fortescue Metals Group boss Andrew Forrest reportedly made a pitch to the three today, meeting with them in Canberra to discuss the concerns the mining industry still has with the MRRT.
Rio Tinto gained another 88c through the day to $73.12, however, with BHP Billiton up 41c to $38.32, Newcrest up 17c to $38.07and OZ Minerals putting on 3c to $1.305.
FMG was one of the few exceptions to the day’s positive trading, with the company down 3c to $4.89 after media reports the company is being sued by Leucadia National Corp over FMG’s argument it can take on more debt that may dilute Leucadia’s right to royalties from FMG’s Pilbara operations.
Andean Resources also fell, down 11c to $4.89.
Murchison Metals was the best of the larger caps, up 11.5c to $1.52 at the close of the day.
Equinox Minerals also surged, on media reports from Africa that the company expects to begin exporting uranium from its Lumwana copper project in Zambia by 2013.
Mineral Resources also had a solid day, up 34c to $9.04.
Mirabella Nickel was the worst of the large caps, down 4.5c to $1.69, with fellow nickel producer Western Areas down 12c to $5.13.
Alkane Resources was the best performed mid-cap, up 5c to 50c, with Metminco putting on 2c to 22c and Highlands Pacific gaining 2.5c to 29c.
