Jan 16 (Reuters) - Australian shares rose in early trade on Thursday, with local banks helping the rise in the benchmark, while investors awaited local jobs data for December to gauge the country's central bank's stance on the interest rate path.
The S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO advanced 1.6% to 8,343.4 points by 2324 GMT, eyeing its best day since Dec. 23. The benchmark closed 0.2% lower on Wednesday.
Domestic employment data, due later in the day, is one of the Reserve Bank of Australia's $(RBA)$ preferred measures to provide cues on the path for interest rates.
The jobless rate, which had posted a shock decline in November, could further pare back bets of a rate cut from the RBA on another decline in December data. The country's central bank is set to meet on Feb. 18.
Meanwhile, lower-than-expected U.S. inflation data on Wednesday showed hopeful signs for the U.S. Federal Reserve's fight against the metric, although uncertainty still remains.
Back in Sydney, local banks .AXFJ led gains on the benchmark with a jump of 2.4%, with prospects of a possible higher-for-longer rate situation helping the sub-index snap a streak of five losing runs.
The 'Big Four' banks rose between 1.6% and 2%.
Domestic miners .AXMM also helped gains on the benchmark, rising 0.9%, as stronger iron ore prices aided by China's better-than-expected credit data helped the sector advance. IRONORE/
Rio Tinto RIO.AX, one of the world's largest iron ore producers, saw shares edge 1.2% higher even as it reported a 1% decline in its fourth-quarter iron ore shipments on Thursday due to operational headwinds.
Local technology stocks .AXIJ also logged gains of 2.5%, set for their strongest trading session since Nov. 19, as the sector followed the Wall Street surge. .N
Sector majors Xero XRO.AX and WiseTech Global WTC.AX rose 2.1% and 2.8%, respectively.
Meanwhile, New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index .NZ50 rose 0.3% to 12,986.3 points.
(Reporting by Shivangi Lahiri in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)
((shivangi.lahiri@thomsonreuters.com))
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