SYDNEY: The Australian sharemarket has rebounded from earlier losses as traders await the outcome of the Reserve Bank’s August board meeting this afternoon.
Financial and consumer stocks were pulling the local market higher, offsetting weakness in resources stocks as a big drop in oil prices weighed on the energy sector..
At 12.05pm (AEST), the benchmark S&P/ASX200 was up 39.2 points, or 0.69 per cent, to 5718.5, while the broader All Ordinaries gained 37.6 points, or 0.66 per cent, to 5,701.9.
While economists and financial markets expect the Reserve Bank of Australia to hold rates at its monthly board meeting today at the record-low level of 2 per cent, the central bank has surprised the market twice this year.
Only three of the 28 economists surveyed by Bloomberg are calling a rate cut, while the interbank swaps market is pricing in less than a 10 per cent chance governor Glenn Stevens will trim rates.
Meanwhile, the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ retail trade figures for June beat economist expectations by a wide margin, lifting 0.7 per cent in the month and by 0.8 per cent over the quarter.The Bureau also released international trade figures for the month, which showed Australia’s trade deficit had widened in June, but not as much as economists had expected.
The Australian dollar rallied on the back of the data releases, jumping to the high US72c level.
