Australia shares edge closer to 7-year highs

* Shares (Frankfurt: DI6.F - news) up 0.5 pct at 5,911.6 points

* Still in sight of 7-year high

* Lead by gains in financials, all sectors participate in rally

* 123 shares up, 58 down, 19 unchanged (Adds analysis, quotes, stocks on the move)

By Swati Pandey and Gyles Beckford

SYDNEY/WELLINGTON, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Australian shares gave up early losses to edge closer to the psychological level of 6,000 points, led by broad-based gains as investors shrugged off weak earnings reports from resources and energy-related companies.

Sentiment was bouyed as the Dow and S&P500 ended at record highs on Friday after the Greek and euro zone finance ministers reached a deal to extend Greece's financial rescue plan by four months.

The S&P/ASX 200 index rose 0.5 percent, or 27.76 points, to 5,909.3 points by 0106 GMT. The benchmark fell 0.4 percent on Friday. The index rose last week to its highest since May 2008.

Analysts expect Australian shares to offer lower or modest returns over the next 12-18 months. The index, which is up over 9 percent so far this year, is trading at 14.2 times its 12-month forward earnings, higher than its 10-year average.

Financials led the gains on Monday with high dividend-yield stocks such as National Australia Bank and Westpac up about 0.6 percent. AMP rose 1.7 percent.

A "very large" futures sell order in the morning had the market fall 0.2 percent earlier, said Shawn Hickman at Market Matters.

Mining contractors bore the brunt of a resources rout with Macmahon Holdings (Other OTC: MCHHF - news) diving 41 percent and UGL dropping 15 percent. Vocation hit an all-time low after flagging writedowns.

Bluescope Steel plummeted over 7 percent after a weak earnings outlook.

Elsewhere, speciality pet-care retailer Greencross Ltd's shares jumped as much as 10.5 percent after strong earnings, while Regis Healthcare hit a record high.

New Zealand stocks were flat with the benchmark NZX (Other OTC: NZSTF - news) -50 index a tick higher at 5749.25.

Telecommunications network operator Chorus was up 1.1 percent at NZ$2.86 as a fall in first half profit matched expectations and it maintained its full year earnings guidance.

Fletcher Building (NZSE: FBU.NZ - news) , the market's biggest stock by capitalisation, was up 0.7 percent to NZ$8.51, as it clawed back some of the 4 percent slide incurred after it was heavily sold following its first half result.

Accounting software developer Xero (Frankfurt: 0XE.F - news) maintained its strong run of last week, up 1.5 percent at NZ$20.00 on modest volumes.

Other major results due this week include national carrier Air New Zealand, power company Mighty River Power (Stuttgart: MRY.SG - news) and retirement village operator Metlifecare.