It was a case of rinse & repeat for the ASX today with early sold-off then seeing support kicking in before midday to take the index to a new 9-month high. Despite the strength in the index, the banks failed to join the rally, certainly surprising to see such a strong move without the Financial sector contributing, likely on the back of a sector-wide downgrade coming through from Macquarie yesterday. It was the Materials sector continuing to see buying that dragged the index to within 2% of all-time highs today while Real Estate and Tech were also key pillars of strength.