ASX 200 closes up 0.1%; BHP's Australian shareholders approve end of dual-structure listing

BHP’s Australian shareholders have voted overwhelmingly in favour of returning the mining giant to its Australian home. ASX adds 0.1 per cent on mining gains.

The Australian sharemarket looks set to shrug off a weak lead in US markets as commodity prices climb. Photo: Jeremy Piper / NCA NewsWire

Welcome to the Trading Day blog for Thursday, January 20. ASX has pared earlier losses to close higher on strong mining gains. It follows the unemployment rate falling to 13-year low of 4.2 per cent and CapVest launching a bid to takeover Virtus Health.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 closed higher by 0.1 per cent or 9.9 points to 7342.4, after being down by 0.4 per cent at noon. The All Ordinaries added 12.3 points or 0.2 per cent to end at 7668.9.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 both closed down 1 per cent while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 1.2 per cent.

Iron ore jumped 2.3 per cent to $US130.20 a tonne overnight, while the US Nymex crude price climbed 1.4 per cent to $US86.58 a barrel.