jan 28 reuters  australia shares erased early gains to trade modestly higher on friday pressured by gold stocks as investors scoured for battered stocks that entered correction territory in the previous session on the us federal reserves hawkish stance the spasx 200 index axjo was up 03 at 685630 as at 2348 gmt after advancing as much as 19 earlier in the day the benchmark declined 18 on thursday and is now more than 10 below its august 2021 high the index was on track to lose more than 7 in january its worst month since march 2020 the fed said on thursday it would likely raise interest rates in march and begin tapering bond purchase programme in the same month read more investor focus is now at a meeting by the reserve bank of australia due next week where the central bank is expected to end its bondbuying programme but might wait until november to make its first interest rate hike in over a decade a reuters poll showed read more australian miners axmm added as much as 2 on friday as iron ore prices crept up on hopes of robust demand for the steelmaking ingredient in china heavyweights bhp group bhpax rio tinto rioax and fortescue metals group fmgax gained more than 3 each healthcare stocks axhj advanced as much as 21 to mark their biggest intraday jump in nearly six weeks biotech giant csl ltd gained 3 however a 4 drop in local gold miners axgd limited the gains in the benchmark as bullion slid more than 1 overnight after the greenback rallied on robust us economic data which would strengthen the case for faster rate hikes newcrest mining ncmax slumped 41 to its lowest since lateseptember as its quarterly gold output fell from yearago levels while the top australian gold producer also flagged weather issues and omicronled headwinds at its lihir mine in papua new guinea new zealands benchmark spnzx 50 index nz50 was down 03 at 1200843 hovering near its lowest since feb 26 last year reporting by sameer manekar in bengaluru editing by sherry jacobphillips