Australian shares rise 0.8% ahead of inflation data

Australian shares rose on Wednesday, boosted by mining and banking stocks. Investors are looking ahead to local inflation data for February, which will help them understand the central bank's possible interest rate cuts. The S&P/ASX 200 index increased by 0.8% to reach 8,001.7 points, marking its fifth consecutive day of gains. This is the first time the index has surpassed the 8,000-point mark since March 7. On Tuesday, the Australian government announced new tax cuts and measures to ease the cost of living in an effort to regain the support of unhappy voters. However, inflation is projected to rise again to 3% over the next fiscal year, touching the upper limit of the central bank's target of 2% to 3%. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has indicated that more interest rate cuts are not guaranteed. The next RBA decision will be on April 1, and the market does not expect another full rate cut until July. Mining stocks led the gains, climbing 1.4% due to higher iron ore prices driven by increased demand. Major miners like Rio Tinto, BHP Group, and Fortescue saw increases of between 1.2% and 1.4%. Banks also performed well, rising 1.0%, with the "Big Four" banks growing between 0.9% and 1.9%. Gold stocks increased by 1.7% as gold prices rose, with Evolution Mining up by 1.2%. In contrast, healthcare stocks fell by 0.3%, with biopharmaceutical company CSL decreasing by 0.2%. Meanwhile, New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index also saw a gain of 0.8%, reaching 12,281.33 points.