ASX 200 extends winning streak after RBA hike; A2 Milk surges and Appen tumbles on update

ASX rises for a sixth straight day after the RBA's 50bps hike. Zip and A2 Milk surge, Appen dives on update, Telstra completes Fetch acquisition and United Malt selloff extends.

Local equity investors are focused on the RBA’s cash rates decision and inflation commentary. Picture: Gaye Gerard.

Welcome to the Trading Day blog for Tuesday, August 2. The Australian sharemarket eked out a sixth consecutive session of gains following the RBA's 50 basis point lift to the official cash rate.

The S&P/ASX 200 index closed 5.13 points, or 0.1 per cent higher to 6998.10 - having been down by 0.4 per cent prior to this afternoon's rate hike.

On Wall Street, soft manufacturing and other economic data left the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.1 per cent, while the S&P 500 fell 0.3 per cent and the technology-focused Nasdaq Composite Index closed 0.2 per cent lower.

US 10-year yields fell to near 2.59 per cent but US two-year yields are steady near 2.89 per cent.

Oil prices fell ahead of a producers’ meeting this week and in response to weak manufacturing updates from Asia, Europe and the US. The Brent crude sank 3.8 per cent to $US100.03 per barrel while the US Nymex is off 4.8 per cent to $US93.89.

Iron ore futures price is flat at $US114.86 per tonne.

The Australian dollar slipped from US70.18c ahead before the RBA's interest rate call to US69.92c on their release.