Forex Marketz Daily Forex News – Fully Markets Update
Breaking News: The Reserve Bank of Australia has just announced its final monetary policy decision for the year. The central bank said that it was keeping the benchmark official cash rate unchanged at 1.5 percent. This was widely expected.
The Reserve Bank of Australia has maintained their official cash rate at that historic low since August 2016.
The Australian S&P ASX 200 was a tad lower at 5,983.7. This comes after being down nearly 0.3 percent in the first hour of trade. The heavily weighted financial sub index was down by 0.31 percent.
The country’s Big Four banks were under pressure ANZ bank was down 0.56 percent, Commonwealth Bank was down 0.27 percent, Westpac was lower by 0.83 percent and the National Australia Bank was also down.
In Japan, the benchmark Nikkei 225 was down by 0.46 percent this morning. The broader Topix, in Tokyo, index was down 0.17 percent. Across the Korean Strait, the Kospi Composite index reversed losses to move up 0.35 percent.
The Hang Seng index, in Hong Kong, was down 0.19 percent in morning trade. On the Chinese mainland, both the Shanghai and the Shenzhen composites were both fractionally higher.
Currencies Mover Higher after the Central Bank of Australia Rate Announcement
Looking at today’s currency markets, during Asian trade hours, the US dollar index was trading at traded at 93.069 against a basket of rivals. The dollar hovered near levels touched upon during the previous Asian trading session.
Among the Forex majors, the Japanese yen traded at 112.47 to the US dollar. As of 10 am Hong Kong time, the Australian dollar moved higher to $0.7639. This was up from an earlier low of $0.7593.
