Interest-rate sensitive real estate investment trusts, or REITs, were up 1.7 per cent after Goodman Group rose 1.9 per cent, Westfield shopping centres owner Scentre was up 0.9 per cent and Stockland lifted 1.9 per cent.

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The market was buoyed by the February retail sales data, which came in slightly weaker than expected with a rise of 0.3 per cent month-on-month, in an indication the economy is cooling. The Reserve Bank is looking for signs of falling inflation to begin cutting interest rates.

The laggards

Financials and tech stocks (both sectors up 0.4 per cent) were the weakest sectors on the local bourse.

While CBA (up 0.3 per cent), Westpac (up 0.4 per cent) and ANZ (up 0.5 per cent) all rose, NAB shed 0.1 per cent. Insurers Suncorp and IAG also fell, losing 0.7 per cent and 0.6 per cent, respectively.

Meridian Energy recorded the greatest slump among mega-cap stocks after its shares tumbled 3.4 per cent, followed by Fisher and Paykel Healthcare Corporation (down 2.8 per cent), Suncorp (down 0.7 per cent), IAG (down 0.6 per cent) and GQG Partners (down 0.4 per cent).

The lowdown

Commenting on the market’s performance, Eightcap market analyst Zoran Kresovic said he anticipated the rally that has taken the ASX 200 to record highs to continue.

“As we anticipate interest rate cuts coming through, starting in the US from June onwards, there’s going to be a more bullish sentiment across sectors,” Kresovic said.

“If you have a look at the charts, what happens in a bullish market is we tend to see trends narrow out at the top, and we’re not seeing that on the ASX 200.

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“What we’re seeing is the market creating major highs and major troughs, and that indicates there is a lot more potential.”

Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 climbed 0.9 per cent. The Dow Jones jumped 1.2 per cent and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.5 per cent. Both finished a bit shy of their own records.

Wall Street traders sent stocks higher in the final stretch of a quarter that saw the market surge 10 per cent, with many institutional investors rebalancing their portfolios.

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Quote of the day

The Senate committee that uncovered the PwC tax scandal has accused the consulting firm’s leadership of failing to co-operate with the inquiry in an attempt to minimise damage to its reputation and questioned whether the problems which caused the scandal are being addressed.

“The committee has found it impossible to reconcile the different versions and recollections of events provided by the witnesses. The committee is concerned about the truthfulness of some of the evidence it has received and is left questioning the credibility of [former PwC boss Luke] Sayers’ evidence,” said the report, titled PwC: The Cover-up Worsens the Crime.

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