Australian shares lifted 0.5 per cent to their highest peak in six weeks on Thursday, bolstered by bets that global central banks may soon shift to a lower pace of rate increases after the Bank of Canada lifted less than expected overnight.
Increasing expectation among investors that the Federal Reserve along with other central banks may stall their aggressive rate-hike policies helped soothe jitters. Westpac chief economist Bill Evans thinks the Reserve Bank should raise interest rates 0.5 percentage points on Cup Day to 3.1 per cent.Barrenjoey is calling for a 0.5 percentage point increase to the cash rate at the Reserve Bank policy meeting on Tuesday, saying this will show that the RBA is truly responsive to incoming data and that “the facts have changed”.P/ASX 200 closed up 0.5 per cent or 34.2 points to 6845.1. The All Ords similarly rose 0.5 per cent to 7042.