Australia: Shares in late rally after early fall

[SYDNEY] Australian stocks, buoyed by China's move to cut interest rates, staged a late rally to finish higher Wednesday after trading in the red for most of the session.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index closed 0.69 per cent higher at 5,172.8 after falling as low as 5,051.40 in early trade.

It followed a 2.72 per cent rebound on Tuesday, after a 4.09 per cent loss on Monday amid a global sell-off prompted by falling oil prices and fears of a Chinese economic slowdown.

"The Chinese market is probably the inspiration here," IG Markets' chief market strategist Chris Weston told AFP.

"The market's responded fairly positively to the reserve (requirement) ratio cuts. There was a bit of a slow burn at the start and then we've seen buying come through at the back-end of the day." The Chinese central bank on Tuesday cut interest rates and also reduced the amount of reserves banks must hold as part of moves to boost slowing growth.

Mr Weston said a speech later Wednesday at a Federal Reserve annual summit by New York Fed president Bill Dudley might indicate whether the US central bank would raise interest rates in September.

The recent market turbulence has raised expectations that the Fed could delay lifting its benchmark federal funds rate from zero.

AFP