Australia shares jump on commodity rally

* Australia shares up 1.3 pct

* 173 shares up, 22 down and 5 unchanged

* Index up 9.5 pct YTD, trading at 14.89 times earnings (Adds analysis, quotes, stocks on the move)

By Swati Pandey and Gyles Beckford

SYDNEY/WELLINGTON, April 24 (Reuters) - Australian shares rose the most in nearly five weeks on Friday with miners and energy stocks benefiting from an overnight rally in crude oil and iron ore prices.

The S&P/ASX 200 index rose 1.3 percent, or 75.6 points to 5,921.0 by 0218 GMT. Market turnover was exaggerated ahead of options expiry. The benchmark closed up 0.1 percent on Thursday.

The market has had a poor run lately with discouraging economic news from China, a key iron ore importer and Australia's main trading partner, made worse by weak global commodity prices.

The benchmark has fallen in six of the last 10 sessions but it is set to end the week in the black, thanks to Friday's gains.

"With a very quiet day of economic releases in the Asia Pacific region I expect some profit-taking in the afternoon session, with the market finishing up around 45 to 50 points," said Tristan K'Nell, head of trading at Quay Equities.

Among index heavyweights, BHP Billiton (NYSE: BBL - news) and Rio Tinto were top movers, rising over 2 percent. Among energy shares, Sundance was up 9 percent and Karoon Gas rose over 3 percent.

The "Big Four" lenders including Commonwealth Bank, up 1.3 percent, and ANZ Bank, up 1 percent, also lifted the index higher.

Fortescue Metals (Dusseldorf: FVJ.DU - news) soared for a second day after its new bond rose in the secondary debt market.

Resmed Inc (NYSE: RMD - news) slumped as much as 10.2 percent after third quarter earnings missed forecasts.

For more individual stocks activity click on

New Zealand shares were fractionally firmer with the benchmark NZX50 index at 5,762.89, bouncing off a two-month low after six consecutive losing sessions.

The main action was with accounting software company Xero (Frankfurt: 0XE.F - news) , a top-10 stock, which dived 9.1 percent to a two-month low after reporting an 96 percent rise in its full year loss, and the resignation of a senior executive.

Xero's fall was largely offset by gains for other top stocks, including telecoms operator Spark, utilities investor Infratil and casino company Sky City all up more than 1 percent.

Meridian Energy was up 1.6 percent as bargain hunters appeared to have emerged after the company's sharp falls in the past week ahead of the payment of the final instalment on its part paid-shares.