The ASX rises as Wall Street is boosted by rate hopes; miners advance.

The Australian sharemarket traded higher on Thursday afternoon after technology stocks drove a rally on Wall Street, where Fed comments fueled expectations of imminent interest rate cuts.

The S&P/ASX 200 index was up 44 points, or 0.6 percent, to 8136.30 points as of 1.59 pm AEST, marking a new 100-day high. Mining stocks, energy, and information technology companies led the gains, while financials tracked lower.

This rise followed a 1.8 percent surge in the previous session, prompted by key inflation data indicating signs of disinflation in Australia’s economy. The data has raised hopes that the Reserve Bank could start cutting rates in November, after raising the cash rate 13 times since March 2022. Mining heavyweight Rio Tinto was up 2.2 percent, BHP was trading 1.1 percent stronger, and Pilbara Minerals was the biggest large-cap advancer, rising 3.8 percent, followed by TechnologyOne, up 3.3 percent. Iron ore miner Fortescue was trading 1 percent higher after announcing that Australian Indigenous leader Noel Pearson had joined its board as a non-executive director.

CBA, the biggest stock on the local market, was down 0.5 percent after hitting another record high of more than $138 at the open. The nation’s biggest bank warned shareholders about items impacting its 2024 results, due on August 14, including costs of $89 million from changes to the operating model of subsidiary Bankwest, and a $298 million loss on the sale of its 99 percent shareholding in the Indonesian PT Bank Commonwealth. NAB was trading 0.9 percent weaker, while the rest of the big four showed slight gains.