News: XIJ Australian shares hit near 3-week high on banks, tech boost

Oct 5 (Reuters) - Australian stocks rose to a nearly three-week high on Wednesday, buoyed by banking and technology shares, as investors found comfort in the central bank's surprise move to temper the pace of its interest rate hikes.

The S&P/ASX 200 index (xjo) was up 1.76% at 6,815.5 points, as of 0001 GMT. The benchmark settled 3.8% higher on Tuesday.

The Reserve Bank of Australia on Tuesday surprised markets with a smaller-than-expected interest rate hike of 25 basis points, saying rates had already risen substantially, but added that further tightening would still be needed.

Interest rate-sensitive technology stocks .AXIJ advanced 3.9% and tracked a rally on tech-heavy Nasdaq index.

Software firm Novonix (NVX) jumped 6.6% and Megaport (MP1) gained 5.2%, while the ASX-listed shares of Block Inc (SQ2) led the gains with a 9.3% jump.

Financials .AXFJ advanced 2.2%, with the "Big Four" banks gaining more than 2% each.

Among individual stocks, Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) rose 2.2% after its green power arm, Fortescue Future Industries (FFI), partnered with energy infrastructure developer Tree Energy Solutions to develop a hydrogen energy import facility in Germany.

Link Administration Holdings (LNK) jumped nearly 5% after receiving an A$1.27 billion ($826.14 million) bid from Canada's Dye & Durham (D&D) DND.TO for the share registry firm's corporate markets and banking segments, days after D&D's takeover offer for the entire company fell through.

Across the Tasman Sea, New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index (nz50) trades 1.19% higher at 11,090 points.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand is expected to deliver its fifth half-point interest rate hike later in the day and is expected do the same in November in an attempt to stem the tide of rising inflation, a Reuters poll of economists predicted.

($1 = 1.5373 Australian dollars)