The Australian sharemarket is trading higher for a record 12th trading session in a row, boosted by a rise in oil prices.
However, the upward momentum has been tempered by the Reserve Bank of Australia’s quarterly statement.
OptionsXpress market analyst Ben Le Brun said investors interpreted the RBA’s statement as suggesting the pressure to lower interest rates further was not as strong as the market expected.
“We’ve come off our highs just after the release of this RBA statement,” Mr Le Brun said.
“Perhaps the interest rate environment is not as aggressive to the downside as the market was expecting.
“But still, the (market’s) upward bias is intact, led by the energy space on that stronger oil price overnight and also seeing some reasonable gains in the materials space.”
The Reserve Bank on Friday cut its economic growth forecasts by a quarter of a percentage point because of a slower than expected recovery in non-mining business investment.
Mr Le Brun said the RBA had downgraded gross domestic product forecasts in the short term but 2016 still looked a bit more optimistic.
Among the major banks at 1200 AEDT, Commonwealth Bank was 28 cents lower at $92.99, ANZ had eased 11 cents to $34.87, and National Bank had dipped three cents to $36.94. But Westpac had lifted 24 cents to $36.68.
Oil and gas producer Woodside was up 51 cents at $35.77, Santos had gained seven cents to $8.16, and Oil Search had found six cents at $8.29.
In the resources sector, global miner BHP Billiton added 12 cents to $31.48, Rio Tinto ascended 39 cents to $60.59, and Fortescue Metals firmed two cents to $2.53.
Virgin Australia was up 1.25 cents at 45.75 cents after returning to underlying profitability in the second quarter of the financial year.
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp was up 32 cents at $19.57 after it recorded flat second quarter earnings amid a further slide in revenue from its UK and Australian newspapers.
KEY FACTS
* At 1205 AEDT on Friday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 12.5 points, or 0.22 per cent, at 5,823.5 points.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was up 12.2 points, or 0.21 per cent, at 5,777.7 points.
* The March share price index futures contract was 13 points higher at 5,768 points, with 13,798 contracts traded.
* National turnover was 537.3 million securities worth $1.5 billion.