Good afternoon,

Across the region, Asian markets are mixed following a complete lack of leads overnight and in very thin, holiday-affected trade. The Nikkei 225 is 0.5% firmer after being lower early on the back of a stronger yen, which hurt exporters. Elsewhere, the Hang Seng and Kospi are both 0.2% firmer while the Shanghai Composite is up 1.8%.

In Australia, the ASX 200 is currently 0.8% higher at 4256, just off its highs of the session. Having opened convincingly lower, the market has steadily rallied throughout the session with the financials, energy and industrial sectors all seeing modest gains. The materials and consumer related sectors are detracting points ahead of the RBA's interest rates decision at 2.30pm AEST.

After opening below 4200, it's been one-way traffic as strong support emerged below the key 4200 level, as previously seen back on the 21st May. Although volumes are very light, it appears strong terms of trade numbers and an RBA statement containing no surprises have been enough to move the market higher.

After the market hit a 7-month low this morning, perhaps we're starting to see some valuation based buying emerge, even though it's on light volumes. At the end of the day, for those investors with a 3 - 5 year time horizon, the market is cheap.

Technically, there looks to be a lot of support through the 4175 - 4200 range. The big 'hammer' candlestick pattern from May 21 shows a massive rejection of lower prices. It's very encouraging to see buyers willing to step in buy around these levels - given the short-term oversold position, we could be seeing the start of a relief rally.

Provided by igmarkets.com.au