News: XEJ Australia shares gain as commodity rally lifts risk appetite

Aug 25 (Reuters) - Australia shares rose on Wednesday, as energy firms and miners rallied on improving commodity prices, while a slew of upbeat annual results in the final week of the domestic corporate earnings season lifted investors' risk appetite.

The S&P/ASX 200 index (xjo) was up 0.41% at 7,533.5 points, as of 0114 GMT. The benchmark closed 0.2% higher at 7,503 points on Tuesday.

Major miners .AXMM rose 1.9% tracking iron ore prices, which jumped more than 6% overnight as easing worries over the COVID-19 outbreak in China helped calm nerves after several days of sell-offs driven by demand concerns.

Rising COVID-19 infections caused by the highly contagious Delta variant have fuelled concerns about the recovery from the pandemic. But markets have largely overlooked that this week.

Sector heavyweights - BHP Group (BHP) and Fortescue Metals (FMG) advanced between 1.1% and 4.3% while miner Champion Iron Ltd (CIA) led gains on the sub-index with a 4.66% jump.

Aurelia Metals Ltd (AMI) climbed up to 5.3% after the gold and base metals explorer reported a 31% jump in its annual net profit after income tax.

Energy stocks .AXEJ rose 1.3%, tracking a 3% overnight jump in global oil prices, which were lifted by reports that Mexico suffered a large fire-related production outage.

Fuel supplier Viva Energy Group Ltd (VEA) led gains on the sub-index, advancing 3.84%, followed by Ampol Ltd (ALD) gaining 2.09​%.

Global logistics software maker Wisetech Global (WTC) was the top gainer on the local bourse, surging 29.8% to hit a record high on delivering 18% revenue growth for the year and meeting the top end of its forecast range.

Animal nutrition solutions provider Ridley Corporation (RIC) climbed as much as 12.3% on restoring its final dividend after rebounding from a loss a year earlier.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index (nz50) was up 0.59% at 13,149.6 points.

Elsewhere, Japan's Nikkei .N225 was up 0.28% at 27811.1 points, while S&P 500 E-minis futures EScv1 were down 0.01%.