News: XMM Banks, gold stocks push Australian shares higher

	  ASX 200 hits one-week high  

	  Gold stocks hit over one-week high 

	  All eyes on U.S. Federal Reserve meeting  

(Updates to close)

Australian shares rose for a third straight session on Thursday, with financial stocks leading gains on expectations that central banks were done hiking rates while gold stocks climbed on higher bullion prices.

The S&P/ASX 200 index (xjo) closed 0.5% higher at 7,182.1 points to hit their highest level since August 16.

A round of soft surveys on manufacturing revived hopes that central banks were done tightening lending rates.

The interest rate clues Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is likely to give at an annual central bank summit on Friday will be keenly watched.

"I'm expecting no change from the Fed meeting. I think everything, including the Australian central bank, will be on hold going forward," said Brad Smoling, managing director at Smoling Stockbroking.

"I can see the market really starting to throw off some of the negativity and it looks like it is set for a very large rally."

In Sydney, rate-sensitive financial stocks .AXFJ advanced 1.0%, with the so-called "big four" banks gaining between 0.5% and 1.4%.

The release of soft European and US flash PMIs overnight is good news for big banks, as it raised expectations of rate hikes ending, prompting a fall in yields at home and abroad, Tony Sycamore, market analyst at IG Australia, said in a note.

Gold stocks climbed 2.5% to hit their highest level since Aug. 14, tracking an uptick in bullion prices, while energy stocks .AXEJ jumped 0.9%.

Technology stocks .AXIJ surged 4.2%, tracking their Wall Street peers higher.

Heavyweight mining stocks .AXMM were flat, inching up by 0.1% even as mining giants Rio Tinto (RIO) and Fortescue (FMG) rose 0.9% and 0.2%.

In corporate news, shares of Whitehaven Coal (WHC) fell 5.1% after it forecast weaker-than-expected annual managed coal output for fiscal 2024 and said it will suspend its buy-back program.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index (nz50) retreated 0.6% at 11,502.13 points.