End-of-day summary:
Aussie shares fell for a second session after the Reserve Bank maintained its tightening bias on rates as oil prices climbed to their highest in ten months, fuelling inflationary pressures on the economy.
The ASX 200 dropped 34 points or 0.47% to 7197. Mining and property stocks were the principal drags during a session when energy was the only sector to advance.
The energy sector put on 0.2% as Brent crude cracked US$95 a barrel for the first time since November. The international oil benchmark was lately trading at US$95.01 after trading as high as US$95.15 this afternoon.
Today's crude rally came as the RBA cited rising fuel costs as an obstacle to bringing inflation back within the central bank's target range.
"Members noted that the recent rise in petrol prices – an important input for households’ inflation expectations – highlighted that the process of returning inflation to target could be uneven," the minutes from this month's policy meeting, released today, said.
Also troubling board members was the risk that China's economic slowdown would throw a brake on Australian business activity. The bank debated raising benchmark rates before opting to leave the cash rate target unchanged at 4.1%.
