News: Australia shares gain, healthcare shines; NZ pauses near record high

Australian shares rallied 0.7 percent on Monday, helped by solid gains in healthcare stocks, while the New Zealand market held near recent record levels.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index (xjo) was up 35.3 points, at 5,364 by 0318 GMT, not far from an all-time peak of 5,425.2 touched last week.

Last week, the benchmark index capped six consecutive weekly gains and is up 1.3 percent for the year.

Much of the increase came from health stocks with the index .AXHJ up 2.3 percent to touch an all-time record.

"It's a combination of international investors attracted to the sector due to the falling Australian dollar and local investors playing catch up with the share market's 2016 high," said Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets.

Primary Health Care (PRY) jumped 5.4 percent, having bounced from a two-month low touched on Friday, while Sonic Healthcare (SHL) soared to its highest in nearly one year. Sirtex Medical (SRX) leapt nearly 4 percent.

McCarthy said part of the attraction to the stocks of Primary and Sonic was the companies' large offshore income streams. The Australian dollar has fallen around 4 percent so far this month.

Banks were also in the black with Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), Westpac Banking Corp (WBC), National Australia Bank (NAB) and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) up between 0.6 and 1 percent.

Among the miners, BHP Billiton (BHP) rose 1.3 percent and Rio Tinto (RIO) 0.9 percent.

But the energy sector was struggling with Whitehaven Coal (WHC) off 2.4 percent, having jumped 10 percent last week.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index (nz50) was subdued with a 0.1 percent rise to 6,923.72, pausing from a record peak of 6,961,7 set last week.

Casino operator Sky City (SKC) led losses, falling 4.6 percent as investors sold off shares after a three-day trading halt. The company announced last week that it was launching a rights issue to raise NZ$263 million.

Telecommunications company Spark (SPK) lost 1.1 percent while Might River Power (MRP) fell 0.65 percent.

Meridian Energy (MEL) edged down 0.4 percent after announcing its retail sales volumes decreased in April.

Kiwi Property Group (KPG) rose 0.3 percent after the property company reported a record after tax profit.

Accounting software company Xero (XRO) led gains, rising 2.4 percent, as the company continued to recover from its falls when it announced its full-year results on Thursday.