Australian shares up

Australian shares ended 0.2 percent higher on Friday, as mining stocks rebounded after the recent sell-off in commodities eased, but the market still suffered its biggest weekly loss in almost a month as global growth concerns weighed on sentiment. Global miner BHP Billiton advanced 2.5 percent while rival Rio Tinto Ltd climbed 4.3 percent. The country's No 3 iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group Ltd surged 9.3 percent.
"We think the big miners are undervalued at the moment and have been for some time, just based on our forecast for their cashflows in future," said Mark Taylor, senior resources analyst at Morningstar in Sydney. "The market obviously focused on more short-term stuff such as weakening iron ore prices or gold prices," he added. The S&P/ASX 200 index added 7.5 points to 4,931.9, according to the latest data. The resources-heavy index posted a 1.6 percent loss for the week, marking the biggest weekly loss since March 22.
The market's downturn this week comes amid increasing concerns about the health of the global economy. Analysts said investor sentiment remained cautious after a recent run of soft data from the United States and China, Australia's biggest export market, triggered a selloff in global stocks and commodities. Gold miners enjoyed significant rebounds as gold's recent sell-off paused. Newcrest Mining Ltd surged 9.9 percent, while Medusa Mining Ltd soared 15.6 percent, making it No 2 percentage gainer in the index.
Perseus Mining jumped 11.5 percent, after the gold miner said it expected to start building the $160 million Sissingue gold mine in Cote d'Ivoire in the middle of this year despite the recent slide in gold prices. Financials lost some ground as investors bought into over-sold miners. Australia and New Zealand Banking Group posted the sharpest loss of almost 2.0 percent among the big four banks, while No 1 lender Commonwealth Bank of Australia ended 0.3 percent lower.
Australia's biggest oil and gas producer Woodside Petroleum Ltd was 0.7 percent higher, as oil rose and snapped a six-day losing streak. The country's No 2 energy firm Santos Ltd climbed 2.4 percent, as it maintained production guidance of between 53 and 57 million barrels of oil equivalent for 2013 despite the fact that its Q1 production dipped 2 percent. New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index shed 0.1 percent to 4,444.5, paring some losses made earlier.