News: XGD Australia shares hit record high on financial gains, robust James Hardie earnings

Aug 10 (Reuters) - Australian shares touched an all-time high on Tuesday, boosted by financial stocks and strong earnings from blue-chip companies fibre cement maker James Hardie and annuities provider Challenger.

The S&P/ASX 200 index (xjo) rose 0.41% to a record high of 7,569.4 points by 0043 GMT. The benchmark closed flat on Monday at 7,538.4 points.

Elsewhere, Japan's Nikkei .N225 was up 0.43% at 27940.83, while S&P 500 E-minis futures EScv1 were up 0.01%

Financials .AXFJ rose 0.6% as Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) gained as much as 0.8% and 0.6%, respectively.

Financial services firm IOOF Holdings Ltd (IFL) led gains on the sub-index, rising 2.61%, followed by Suncorp Group Ltd (SUN) , gaining 2.35%.

Investor focus in now on earnings as companies started to report their results in earnest this week.

The world's largest fibre cement maker, James Hardie Industries PLC (JHX) rose as much as 5.8% to hit a record high on raising its annual adjusted profit forecast after its first-quarter adjusted earnings climbed 50%.

Shares of Challenger Ltd (CGF) climbed as much as 3.3% after the company posted an annual net profit after tax of A$592.3 million ($434.22 million), undoing the A$416 million loss in the prior pandemic-hit period.

Gold stocks .AXGD were the biggest drag on the index, falling nearly 1%, after the precious metal slumped to a more than four-month low overnight.

Gold miners Ramelius Resources Ltd (RMS) and Geopacific Resources Ltd (GPR) dragged on the sub-index the most, slipping 3.42 and 3.08%, respectively.

Across the Tasman Sea, New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index (nz50) rose 0.3% to 12,738.6 points.

($1 = 1.3641 Australian dollars)