April 20 (Reuters) - Australian shares closed marginally higher on Wednesday, as a boost from healthcare stocks after Ramsay Health Care received a near-$15 billion bid was countered by losses in mining stocks.

The S&P/ASX 200 index ended 0.05% higher at 7,569.2 points, as healthcare stocks led gains with a 2.6% jump.

Australia's largest private hospital provider Ramsay Health Care, topped the benchmark, soaring as much as 30% on KKR-led consortium's A$88 ($65.24) cash per share takeover proposal.

"When private equity is buying boring models, that's telling you the market risk is quite high," said Mathan Somasundaram, chief executive officer at Deep Data Analytics.

"What they (KKR) are telling you through their bid is pay up for defensive quality assets because growth is going to be very hard to find."

Financial markets have been roiled this year by the Russia-Ukraine crisis, a resurgence of COVID-19 cases in some countries and fears of aggressive rate hikes to counter surging inflation.

Gains on the day were capped by a 2.3% fall in gold stocks after bullion prices hit a more than one-week low as elevated U.S. dollar and treasury yields weighed on demand for the precious metal.

Australia's largest gold miner Newcrest Mining dropped 1.1% and St Barbara was down 2%.

Local miners slid 1.6%, breaking its three-day winning streak, as iron ore price fell overnight after spokesperson for China's state planner said the country would keep reducing steel output this year.

Heavyweights BHP and Fortescue slipped 1.6% and 0.2%, respectively.

The world's biggest iron ore producer Rio Tinto fell 2.6% after posting lower-than-expected iron ore shipments and warning of risks from sustained high inflation, a resurgence of COVID-19 lockdowns in China and a prolonged Russia-Ukraine war.

In New Zealand, the benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index closed 1.1% higher at 11,966.19 points.

($1 = 1.3488 Australian dollars)

(Reporting By Navya Mittal in Bengaluru; Editing by Amy Caren Daniel)