By Cecile Lefort and Charlotte Greenfield
SYDNEY/WELLINGTON, April 7 (Reuters) - Australian shares extended gains on Thursday, while New Zealand stocks were flirting with a record peak after a jump in oil prices and a cautious Federal Reserve underpinned risk assets.
The S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO rose 0.3 percent or 11.788 points to 4,957.7 by 03:33 GMT, having bounced off a one-month low on Thursday. Yet, it was still down 0.8 percent so far this week.
The energy sector rallied 1.2 percent as oil prices gained. WorleyParsons WOR.AX leapt 4 percent, pulling back from a 10-year trough touched earlier this week. Beach Energy BPT.AX was another outperformer, up 4.2 percent, closely followed by Santos STO.AX and Whitehaven Coal WHC.AX each up 3.8 percent.
Miners were swept higher with BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) BHP.AX and Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) RIO.AX , both up more than 1 percent.
Bargain hunters helped banks regain some ground following recent hefty losses.
Westpac WBC.AX rose 1.12 percent, having touched six-week lows on Wednesday. National Australia Bank NAB.AX and Australia & New Zealand Bank ANZ.AX rose 0.4 percent each, while Commonwealth Bank of Australia CBA.AX edged up 0.2 percent.
Financial stocks have been battered on fears of rising bad debt. However, Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets, said he was not that worried because such concerns were not backed by data. He sees opportunities to buy banks shares.
Telecom stocks got cold shouldered with Telstra TLS.AX down 1.4 percent and TPG Telecom TPM.AX 1.1 percent lower.
For more individual stocks activity click on STXBZ
New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index .NZ50 rose for the second day on Thursday, climbing 0.21 percent or 13.96 points to 6,748.23. It was very near a peak of 6,765.88 touched earlier this week.
Sewing thread manufacturer Coats Group COA.NZ led gains, rising 1.74 percent while infrastructure company Infratil IFT.NZ was up 1.37 percent.
Casino operator Sky City SKC.NZ was up 1.01 percent and online auction company Trade Me TME.NZ climbed 0.92 percent.
Auckland Airport edged down slightly 0.08 percent AIA.NZ The company this morning announced that it had established two new standby bank facilities. in Fonterra's FCG.NZ fund, which provides investor exposure to the farmer-owned dairy exporter, were down 2.9 percent.