News: Australia, NZ shares up, buoyed by oil and Fed

Australian shares extended gains on Thursday, while New Zealand stocks were flirting with a record peak after a jump in oil prices and a cautious Federal Reserve underpinned risk assets.

The S&P/ASX 200 index (xjo) rose 0.3 percent or 11.788 points to 4,957.7 by 03:33 GMT, having bounced off a one-month low on Thursday. Yet, it was still down 0.8 percent so far this week.

The energy sector rallied 1.2 percent as oil prices gained. WorleyParsons (WOR) leapt 4 percent, pulling back from a 10-year trough touched earlier this week. Beach Energy (BPT) was another outperformer, up 4.2 percent, closely followed by Santos (STO) and Whitehaven Coal (WHC) each up 3.8 percent.

Miners were swept higher with BHP Billiton (BHP) and Rio Tinto (RIO), both up more than 1 percent.

Bargain hunters helped banks regain some ground following recent hefty losses.

Westpac (WBC) rose 1.12 percent, having touched six-week lows on Wednesday. National Australia Bank (NAB) and Australia & New Zealand Bank (ANZ) rose 0.4 percent each, while Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) edged up 0.2 percent.

Financial stocks have been battered on fears of rising bad debt. However, Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets, said he was not that worried because such concerns were not backed by data. He sees opportunities to buy banks shares.

Telecom stocks got cold shouldered with Telstra (TLS) down 1.4 percent and TPG Telecom (TPM) 1.1 percent lower.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index (nz50) rose for the second day on Thursday, climbing 0.21 percent or 13.96 points to 6,748.23. It was very near a peak of 6,765.88 touched earlier this week.

Sewing thread manufacturer Coats Group (COA) led gains, rising 1.74 percent while infrastructure company Infratil (IFT) was up 1.37 percent.

Casino operator Sky City (SKC) was up 1.01 percent and online auction company Trade Me (TME) climbed 0.92 percent.

Auckland Airport edged down slightly 0.08 percent (AIA) The company this morning announced that it had established two new standby bank facilities.

Shares in Fonterra's (FCG) fund, which provides investor exposure to the farmer-owned dairy exporter, were down 2.9 percent.