oct 14 reuters  australian shares edged higher on thursday driven by gains in metalcentric and tech stocks while diversified miner south 32 surged to a threeyear high on buying a stake in a chilean copper mine the spasx 200 index rose 079 to 73297 points by 0019 gmt the benchmark dipped 01 on wednesday major aussie miners rose 165 on the back of strong prices of zinc copper and aluminium due to a power shortage in china bhp group and rio tinto jumped as much as 14 each shares of south32 ltd jumped 115 and headed for their best day in 112 years as the company agreed to buy a 45 stake in the sierra gorda copper mine in chile for 155 billion australian technology stocks rose 223 tracking overnight gains on nasdaq where big growth names like amazoncom and microsoft provided much of the momentum wisetech global ltd which provides software for logistics companies added 42 to be the top gainer on the subindex software provider iress ltd rose 33 csl ltd climbed 17 after the biotech giant confirmed its commitment to produce roughly 50 million doses of astrazeneca’s covid19 vaccine into 2022 media reports had earlier said astrazeneca’s shot would no longer be made in australia gold stocks rose 296 as bullion prices neared a onemonth peak overnight helped by a pullback in the dollar and us treasury yields gold miner dacian gold ltd led gains on the subindex rising 732 followed by pantoro ltd rising 61 new zealand’s benchmark spnzx 50 index rose 063 to 131073 elsewhere sp 500 eminis futures were up 027 reporting by riya sharma in bengaluru editing by ramakrishnan m