MELBOURNE/WELLINGTON, June 16 (Reuters) - Australian shares rebounded off a two-month low on Thursday thanks mostly to miners, as the U.S. dollar fell and gold prices rose after the Federal Reserve lowered its economic growth forecasts for this year.
The S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO picked up 15.24 points, or 0.3 percent, to 5,162.30 by 0401 GMT, recouping just a third of Wednesday's losses.
Following five straight sessions of losses, the market opened up strongly but pared early gains in a reminder that it is likely to remain volatile for some time amid uncertainty around U.S. and Chinese growth, Britain's future in the European Union and the U.S. election.
"There's a lot of global issues at the moment. And I think in terms of the investment environment, the fundamentals are deteriorating," said Don Williams, chief investment officer at Platypus Asset Management in Sydney.
"It's not only volatility, but earnings growth is getting harder and harder to come across as well," Williams said.
Due to all the jitters, safe-haven gold continued to shine, and gold miners were among the day's biggest gainers.
Northern Star Resources NST.AX jumped 6 percent, while other gold miners like Newcrest Mining NCM.AX and Evolution Mining EVN.AX rose between 3 and 6 percent.
Diversified miners like BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) BHP.AX and Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) RIO.AX also benefited from a weaker U.S. dollar and rising metals prices, climbing more than 2 percent in early trade, then easing off to trade around 0.5 percent higher.
Crown Resorts CWN.AX shot up 15 percent after saying it may spin off its international business and some Australian properties into separate listed companies to protect the value of its local holdings from Asian gambling hub Macau's decline. the downside, top private health insurer Medibank Private's MPL.AX shares fell as much as 8 percent after Australia's consumer watchdog took it to court for failing to give members advance notice on a move to limit in-hospital benefits partly out of fear of damaging its IPO in 2014. Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index .NZ50 edged up 0.2 percent, or 16.11 points, to 6,885.67.
Air New Zealand AIR.NZ rose 2.12 percent after the airline announced its passenger numbers for May, showing long haul passengers increased 7.5 percent annually. and New Zealand Banking Group ANZ.NZ and Westpac Banking Corp WBC.NZ fell more than 1 percent in New Zealand, while they traded more than 0.5 percent higher in Australia, as the Aussie dollar fell against the New Zealand dollar.
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