Australia, NZ shares post first monthly gain in three <!-- no image --> <div>Australian shares settled 2.4% higher on Thursday, driven by gains in energy and financial stocks, and posted their first monthly gain in three.<div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~ff/reuters/UKBankingFinancial?a=xrZcJDkuUi0:dz8T8rAyxLU:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/reuters/UKBankingFinancial?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></a> <a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~ff/reuters/UKBankingFinancial?a=xrZcJDkuUi0:dz8T8rAyxLU:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/reuters/UKBankingFinancial?i=xrZcJDkuUi0:dz8T8rAyxLU:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></a> <a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~ff/reuters/UKBankingFinancial?a=xrZcJDkuUi0:dz8T8rAyxLU:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/reuters/UKBankingFinancial?i=xrZcJDkuUi0:dz8T8rAyxLU:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/reuters/UKBankingFinancial/~4/xrZcJDkuUi0" height="1" width="1" alt=""></div> Posted by Reuters