Australia Market rebounds as RBA hints at rate pause

Australia stock market finished session notably higher on Tuesday, 21 March 2023, recouping the losses in the previous session, on tracking positive lead from Wall Street overnight and RBA's meeting minutes confirms that the Reserve Bank will consider a pause in interest rate increases at its April meeting.

At closing bell, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index advanced by 56.89 points, or 0.82%, to 6,955.40. The broader All Ordinaries index increased 57.07 points, or 0.81%, to 7,142.20.

The top performing stocks in the S&P/ASX 200 Index were NEW HOPE CORPORATION LIMITED and DOMINO'S PIZZA ENTERPRISES LIMITED, up 8.57% and 5.57% respectively. The bottom performing stocks in S&P/ASX200 index were NOVONIX and PALADIN ENERGY, down 4.03% and 3.36% respectively.

Total 9 of 11 sectors ended higher along with the S&P/ASX 200 Index. Consumer Discretionary was the best performing sector, gaining +1.50%, followed by financial (up 1.18%), materials (up 1%), energy (up 0.88%), industrials (up 0.78%), and A-REIT (up 0.6%) sectors. Utilities was bottom performing sector, falling 1.63%.

Shares of banks and financials advanced, with Commonwealth Bank rising 0.5%, as did NAB. ANZ was up 1.2% while Westpac gained 1.4%. Macquarie Group and Bendigo Bank also rose, closing 3.3% and 1.9% higher.

ECONOMIC NEWS: The minutes from the Reserve Bank of Australia's Monetary Policy Board's March 7 meeting released on Tuesday, reconfirming a rate pause will be considered at the April meeting. The board acknowledged that inflation is expected to remain above the bank's target range for at least the next two years. At the meeting, the RBA hiked its key interest rate by a quarter-point to 3.60 percent, as widely expected. The interest rate on Exchange Settlement balances was also raised by 25 basis points to 3.50 percent. The RBA has tightened its monetary policy by altogether 350 basis points since May 2022.

CURRENCY NEWS: The Australian dollar was stood at 0.6688 against greenback on Tuesday, falling 0.45% from previous trading day closure at 0.6718 after trading in the range of 0.6676-0.6726.

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