The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) finished 2% higher on Tuesday, it was boosted by the RBA's announcements.
Here are the highlights for the ASX today:
RBA decisions
The Reserve Bank of Australia has tried to give another boost to the Australian economy today on two major announcements.
The RBA said that it decided on a package of further measures to support job creation and the recovery of the Australian economy from the pandemic. With Australia facing a period of high unemployment, the Reserve Bank is committed to doing what it can to support the creation of jobs.
Australia's central bank revealed that the recent economic data has been a bit better than expected and the near-term outlook is better than it was three months ago. Even so, the recovery is still expected to be bumpy and drawn out and the outlook remains dependent on successful containment of the virus.
The headline is that the RBA has reduced the cash rate target to just 0.1%. The 3-year Australian government bond yield target was also reduced to 0.1%. At the meeting the RBA also decided to reduce the interest rate on new drawings under the term funding facility to 0.1%, whilst reducing the interest rate on the exchange settlement balances to zero.
Finally, the RBA is going to purchase $100 billion of government bonds of maturities of around five to ten years over the next six months. The bank said it's prepared to purchase bonds in whatever quantity is required to achieve the 3-year yield target. Any bonds purchased to support this target would be in addition to the $100 billion bond purchase program.
Some of the ASX 200's largest banks went up in reaction to this news. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) share price went up 1.4%, the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX: ANZ) share price went up more than 1% and the National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB) share price went up 0.4%.
Other banks also finished in the green like Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Ltd (ASX: BEN), Bank of Queensland Limited (ASX: BOQ) and Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG).
Big day for other ASX 200 shares
Indeed, it was a huge day for plenty of ASX 200 shares.
The Webjet Ltd (ASX: WEB) share price went up around 8.6%. Fund manager Pendal Group Ltd (ASX: PDL) saw its share price rise by 7.6%.
ASX oil shares also had a big day. One that went up a lot was Oil Search Limited (ASX: OSH) where the share price grew 7.5%. The Beach Energy Ltd (ASX: BPT) share price went up 7%.
Credit Corp Group Limited's (ASX: CCP) share price went up more than 7% as well.
Brambles Limited (ASX: BXB)
Pallet and crate business Brambles saw its share price go up by around 6% after revealing that for the first three months of FY21 it saw revenue rise by 6% to US$1.12 billion at actual currency exchange rates.
At constant foreign exchange rates group sales revenue increased by 5% compared to the prior corresponding period with both volume growth and price growth.
The company updated its FY21 guidance. It said that sales revenue is expected to grow by 2% to 4% at constant currency exchange rates with an improved underlying profit margin.
Brambles is now expecting underlying profit to grow by 3% to 5% at constant foreign currency exchange rates.
Whilst this first quarter was a good start to the year, the second half and full year sales growth is expected to moderate as there was strong demand in the second half of FY20 due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
