Australian Stocks Rise On Rate Cut Hopes

(RTTNews) - Australian stock market outperformed most Asian peers as relief at a slowing Core CPI renewed hopes of a rate cut by the Reserve Bank of Australia in February. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving well above the 8,300 level, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 77.10 points or 0.93 percent to 8,362.20. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 67.80 points or 0.79 percent to 8,610.70. Bellevue Gold tops with a surge of 5.8 percent followed by Regis Resources that has gained 5.2 percent. West Gold Resources and Genesis Minerals have rallied more than 4 percent. SIMS has also gained close to 4 percent.

Deep Yellow dropped 7.1 percent followed by ZIP Co that has slipped 5.2 percent. Paladin Energy declined 4.7 percent. Boss Energy and Block have both lost more than 3 percent.

In the currency market, the AUD/USD pair is currently trading at 0.6229, edging down from 0.6230 at the previous close amidst rate cut hopes that is putting pressure on the Aussie Dollar.

Data released earlier in the day by the Australian Bureau of Statistics had showed the headline monthly Consumer Price Index increasing by 2.3 percent annually in November versus a 2.1 percent increase rise in the previous two months, The highest reading since August also surpassed forecasts of 2.2 percent. The Annual Trimmed Mean, a measure of core inflation however dropped to 3.2 percent from 3.5 percent in the previous month.