Australian shares rally ahead of key inflation readout

[Pelican Press 0]

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*********** shares rally ahead of key inflation readout

The local share market moved higher this morning, the start of a busy week of central bank meetings overseas and a key inflation readout domestically.

At noon AEST on Monday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 67.3 points, or 0.85 per cent, to 7,988.6, while the broader All Ordinaries had gained 69.8 points, or 0.86 per cent, to 8,223.2.

About an hour earlier, the ASX200 had reached a 10-day high of 8,000 – but for less than a minute.

ANZ analysts Brian Martin and Daniel Hynes predicted on Monday the US Federal Reserve would leave rates on hold while issue dovish commentary this week, while the Bank of Japan would raise rates and the Bank of England would refrain from cutting them.

Also this week, four members of the “Magnificent Seven” –

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, Meta,

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and Apple – will report earnings.

The highlight of the week for *********** traders however is set to be the second-quarter inflation readout due late on Wednesday morning.

“It’s fair to say this is the most important data point Australia has received all year,” eToro market analyst Josh Gilbert said.

The market consensus is that the *********** Bureau of Statistics will report that “trimmed mean” inflation rose one per cent in the quarter, keeping the annual rate of inflation at four per cent.

NAB analyst Rodrigo Catril said however that a trimmed mean inflation print of over 1.1 per cent would leave the Reserve Bank little choice but to hike rates again.

At midday every sector was higher, tech and utilities the biggest gainers, up 1.2 per cent. Wisetech Global had climbed 2.3 per cent and Origin Energy had gained 1.5 per cent.

Zip Co was the biggest gainer in the ASX200, up 6.9 per cent to a more than two-year high of $1.8975.

Three of the Big Four banks were higher, with Westpac up 1.2 per cent, NAB adding 1.1 per cent and CBA climbing 0.9 per cent.

ANZ was the outlier, down 0.5 per cent amid growing scrutiny of its bond-trading practices.

NIB had dropped 3.0 per cent as the health insurer announced that managing director and chief executive Mark Fitzgibbon would retire on September 1, after 22 years in the role.

“Mark has been a tremendous leader at NIB and has had an enormous impact on the *********** health sector,” said NIB group chair David Gordon.

In the heavyweight mining sector, BHP was up 0.8 per cent, Fortescue had gained 0.3 per cent and Rio Tinto had risen 1.0 per cent ahead of Rio’s full-year earnings results on Wednesday.

The *********** dollar was buying 65.60 US cents, up from 65.53 US cents at Friday’s ASX close.

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