The sharemarket finished flat on Tuesday after the Reserve Bank of Australia’s shock decision to hold the cash rate at 3.85 per cent, with gains in bank stocks helping to offset losses in the retail and property sectors.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index swung between gains and losses before finishing up just 1.4 points, or less than 0.1 per cent, to 8590.7, with six out of the 11 sectors declining.

Shock decision

Investors shrugged off some weakness on Wall Street overnight after US President Donald Trump threatened 25 per cent tariff rates on both Japan and South Korea, reigniting an escalation in the trade war. His spokeswoman said the deadline for trade deals would be pushed to August 1.

But it was the RBA’s shock rate decision that dictated much of the afternoon trading session and sent the ASX 200 down by as much as 0.3 per cent before it pared its losses. Most economists and traders expected the central bank to cut interest rates on Tuesday, before the RBA blindsided the market by keeping the cash rate on hold.

Despite this, index heavyweight Commonwealth Bank snapped its losing streak – the share price had fallen in seven of the past eight sessions – to edge higher 0.8 per cent to $179.28. ANZ and National Australia Bank also made modest gains.

The consumer staples sector fell 1.4 per cent, with the supermarket giants Woolworths and Coles both finishing down more than 1 per cent to $31.02 and $20.74, respectively.

Treasury Wine dropped 1.1 per cent to $8.07. Premier Investments, which owns retailers Peter Alexander and Smiggle, dropped 2.3 per cent to $20.09.

The real estate sector also took a hit as investors took profits after rallying into the rate decision. Mirvac dropped 1.8 per cent to $2.20, GPT Group declined 1.2 per cent to $5.06, and Scentre dipped 1.3 per cent to $3.74.

“The interest rate-sensitive sectors felt the brunt of the selling after the hold decision,” said IG market analyst Tony Sycamore. “That made sense … but the banks held together reasonably well, which was a bit of a surprise. All in all, it wasn’t a huge reaction in markets.”

Elsewhere in markets, oil slipped for the third time in four days as investors focused on the fallout from a wave of US trade levies and a decision by OPEC+ to restore more idled capacity.

Gold steadied after reversing losses in the previous session when Trump began informing a suite of nations of their latest tariff rates, leading to concerns about a growing US-led trade war bolstering haven demand.

Stocks in focus

In corporate news, South32 fell 1.9 per cent to $3.04 after Goldman Sachs cut its outlook to “neutral” with a short-term share price target of $2.90.

Amplitude Energy jumped 4.6 per cent to 23¢ on news that Ian Davies would replace John Conde as chairman in November.

Domino’s Pizza rallied 2.4 per cent to $18.45 after UBS the stock to “buy” from neutral following a drop last week when chief executive Mark van Dyck unexpectedly announced his exit.

Guzman y Gomez dropped 1.5 per cent to $28.19 after JPMorgan initiated coverage on the stock with an “underweight” rating and a short-term share price target of $24.

Platinum Asset Management rose 3 per cent to 52¢ after finalising its merger terms with L1 Capital to create a $16.5 billion investment firm.

And DigitalX shares rocketed 34.2 per cent to 11¢ after the digital asset manager announced a $20.7 million strategic placement backed by Animoca Brands, UTXO Management and ParaFi Capital.