(Reuters) - Australia's share index closed at its highest in more than two months on Thursday, helped by stronger materials and energy stocks, though investors held off on making big bets ahead of a slew of production reports by major resource companies.
The S&P/ASX 200 index <.AXJO> rose 14.9 points, or 0.3 percent, to 5,850 for its third straight session of gains. It had advanced 0.4 percent on Wednesday.
The metals and mining sector <.AXMM> rose 0.7 percent, bolstered mainly by diversified miner South32 <S32.AX>, which gained 3.6 percent after its second-quarter coking coal output nearly doubled.
Metals stocks also gained from firmer commodity prices. London copper prices rose for a third session in a row on Thursday as China's move to inject liquidity into the financial system boosted expectations of higher demand in the world's top industrial metals consumer. [MET/L]
Iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group <FMG.AX> firmed 1.8 percent while diversified miner and index heavyweight Rio Tinto <RIO.AX>, which will report its quarterly production on Friday, gained about 1 percent.
Mining giant BHP Group <BHP.AX> is set to report second-quarter production next week, along with oil and gas players Oil Search <OSH.AX> and Santos <STO.AX>. Resource stocks are the second largest sector on the benchmark.
Whitehaven Coal <WHC.AX> firmed more than 3.7 percent after its second-quarter coal production rose 11 percent. The stock was also the biggest boost to the energy index.
Woodside Petroleum <WPL.AX> pared earlier gains to finish 0.7 percent higher after it reported a surge in quarterly revenue but flagged higher-than-expected investment costs for 2019.
Financials moved higher in tandem with their Wall Street peers as Bank of America Corp <BAC.N> and Goldman Sachs Group Inc <GS.N> reported strong earnings overnight, boosting investor sentiment.
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd <ANZ.AX> finished the session 0.7 percent up, while Commonwealth Bank of Australia Ltd <CBA.AX> advanced 0.3 percent.
Australia's financial sub-index <.AXFJ> rose 0.4 percent, scaling a near 1-1/2-month high, with wealth manager AMP Ltd <AMP.AX> putting on 2.3 percent to be around the top percentage gainers among finance stocks.
New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index <.NZ50> rose about 0.6 percent, or 50.37 points, to 9,077.81, a more than three-month high.
Consumer stocks such as Synlait Milk <SML.NZ> and a2 Milk <ATM.NZ> rose about 2.9 percent and 2.5 percent respectively.
(Reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
