Australian shares inch higher on energy, tech stocks <!-- no image --> <div>Australian shares closed slightly higher on Thursday, helped by energy and tech stocks, in thin trading volumes as investors returned from the New Year's Day holiday.<div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~ff/reuters/UKBankingFinancial?a=pNK8y3Lrupg:UDX5CvKWtXM: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=pNK8y3Lrupg:UDX5CvKWtXM:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/reuters/UKBankingFinancial?i=pNK8y3Lrupg:UDX5CvKWtXM:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></a> <a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~ff/reuters/UKBankingFinancial?a=pNK8y3Lrupg:UDX5CvKWtXM:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/reuters/UKBankingFinancial?i=pNK8y3Lrupg:UDX5CvKWtXM:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/reuters/UKBankingFinancial/~4/pNK8y3Lrupg" height="1" width="1" alt=""></div> Posted by Reuters