A soft end to a tough week for stocks with the market down 1.65% across the five sessions – all sectors finishing lower with Real-Estate (-5.77%) suffering most at the hands of the RBA following a 25bps increase in cash rates, but more importantly, they guided for more to come.
- Today, the ASX 200 finished off -56pts/ -0.76% at 7490
- The Consumer Staples the only sector to finish higher, (+0.95%) while REITs (-0.30%) & Healthcare (-0.38%) outperformed.
- IT (-2.04%), Energy (-1.68%) and Communications (-1.65%) the weakest links.
- The RBA have revised up their inflation forecasts, now tipping a rate of 4.3% by year-end, above the 3.8% they previously thought, although they do think inflation has now peaked.
- UBS have revised up their cash rate call, now expecting rates to peak at 3.85% mid-year, up from the 3.35%. We had their Chief Economist in yesterday.