Australia Stocks End Higher on Broad Gains

MELBOURNE, Australia--Australian shares perked up Tuesday, with broad gains lifting the market in a choppy session.

Resources stocks lent their weight to the push, as crude-oil prices continued to advance in Asian trading on fresh expectations major oil-producing countries will extend their agreed output cut and Chinese iron-ore futures showed further signs of stabilizing after a recent slump.

That offset weakness in the financials sector, as National Australia Bank and Macquarie traded ex-dividend.

Recovering from mid-session weakness, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 12.1 points, or 0.2%, to finish at 5850.5.

Diversified miners BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto were up 0.8% and 1.4%, respectively, and fellow iron-ore producer Fortescue Metals Group climbed 2.3%.

Among energy stocks, Woodside Petroleum picked up 0.2% and Oil Search was 0.7% higher, but Santos slipped 0.3%.

National Australia Bank dropped 3.5% and Macquarie lost 2.1%.

For the day, 2.13 billion shares were traded with a value of 6.77 billion Australian dollars (US$5.02 billion), Commonwealth Securities said.

Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 16, 2017 02:59 ET (06:59 GMT)