Stocks firm as Britain in focus

The local market has closed higher despite the RBA’s more neutral stance on monetary policy.

The Australian sharemarket has consolidated recent gains as fears of a ‘Brexit’ recede and despite the Reserve Bank minutes showing a more neutral footing on monetary policy.

At the 4.15pm (AEST) official market close, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was 17.6 points higher, or 0.33 per cent, to 52274.4, while the broader All Ordinaries index had lifted 17.7 points, or 0.33 per cent, higher to 5353.3.

The bourse was higher from the open after US and European markets performed strongly overnight on the growing hope Britain would vote on Thursday — early Friday, Australian time — to stay in the EU.

But the release of the RBA’s June meeting minutes put a break on sentiment as the central bank gave no hint of further monetary easing after May’s surprise cut, although the board did reiterate that inflation concerns remained.

“The RBA minutes showed a relatively upbeat view of recent economic data, and the market may be starting to price in the outlook that we may be sitting at the current cash rate for a while,” Atlantic Pacific Securities client adviser Gary Huxtable said.

Mr Huxtable said traders were also slowed by the release of residential property price data for the March quarter, with the Australian Bureau of Statistics finding prices eased – 0.2 per cent – for the first quarter since late 2012.

In equity news, Fortescue Metals slumped 2.98 per cent to $3.26 in the wake of the iron ore price and despite the miner announcing its chief financial officer, Stephen Pearce, bad been appointed to the miner’s board as an executive director.

Elsewhere in the materials space, BHP Billiton dipped 0.98 per cent to $18.69 as the diversified mining giant said declared the streamlining of its coal operations was not over yet as low prices forced miners to reassess their plans.

Materials, overall, fell 0.7 per cent as Rio Tinto also declined, off 1.29 per cent to $44.21.

Gold miner Newcrest retreated 0.82 per cent to $21.67 after the spot price for the precious metal dipped on the improved chance of Britain remaining in the EU. But South32 was unaffected by the iron ore and gold price falls, the base-metals focused BHP spinoff 4.1 per cent higher to $1.65.

Meanwhile, the big banks were mostly higher on the receding Brexit threat, and the stability it entailed, with ANZ the best performer with a 1.36 per cent lift to $24.25.

Commonwealth Bank added 1.19 per cent to $75.08 while Westpac rose 0.71 per cent to $29.68. NAB was the outlier as it closed in the red, down 0.31 per cent to $25.67. Financial stocks, overall, closed 0.7 per cent stronger.

Consumer staples ticked down 0.2 per cent as the big two supermarkets weighed. Wesfarmers eased 0.07 per cent to $40.60 while Woolworths dropped 0.89 per cent to $21.19.

But it was the energy space that dominated the negative side of the ledger, dropping 1.4 per cent as the sector retraced some of yesterday’s stunning 5-10 per cent gains which came amid a ratings upgrade for majors from Morgan Stanley. Woodside Petroleum backtracked 3.53 per cent to $26.50 while Origin Energy lost 1.2 per cent to $6.70. However, Santos defied the trend to lift 3.19 per cent to $4.85.

Elsewhere, Qantas gained 0.69 per cent to $2.93 while Telstra lost 0.37 per cent to $5.35.

Meanwhile, at the sharemarket close the Australian dollar was changing hands at US74.8c, up from the US74.59c at the same time yesterday.

In other economic news The ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence rating rose by 2.1 per cent to 118.8 in the week to June 19 – a 2½-year high, according to Commsec, with confidence is up 4.2 per cent over the year and above the average of 112.3 since 2014.

Looking ahead, US Federal Reserve chairman Janet Yellen address a US Senate hearing tonight while there are no major economic or equities updates slated for release in Australia tomorrow.