Shares advanced for their third straight session on Thursday, pushing the benchmark index within striking distance of 5900 points amid continued buying in blue chips.
The S&P/ASX 200 index added 0.4 per cent to 5896.2 in broad-based gains, while the All Ordinaries index rose 0.4 per cent to 5931.8.
Continuing strength on the market came as a Reuters poll of equity strategists found the Aussie index is expected to rise to well above 5900 by the end of the year, to breach the 6000 barrier by mid-2018.
Boosting sentiment has been the commodity exports boom, a lift in consumer and government spending, and the resilience of Australia's economy, which has extended its 25-year streak without a recession.
However, investors should expect some profit-taking along the way, said Fairmont Equities managing director Michael Gable.
The week's rally has been driven by the major banks, as analysts lift their earnings forecasts off the back of out-of-cycle interest rises. But Mr Gable said it was becoming harder to justify further increases in the immediate term, with Thursday's markets showing conviction in the sector has "dropped off a bit".
The big four banks rose between 0.3 and 0.8 per cent on Thursday, with the exception of ANZ which fell 0.1 per cent.
Helping valuations towards the end of March have been a series of outsized dividend payouts.
"Seasonally, March tends to be a solid month for the market," Mr Gable said.
Also doing well on Thursday was the resources sector. BHP Billiton closed up 0.4 per cent, while Rio Tinto gained 0.2 per cent. In financials, Macquarie Group added 0.9 per cent.
Wesfarmers rose 1.4 per cent, and rival supermarket owner Woolworths 1.3 per cent, helping lift the market. The healthcare sector was mixed - CSL added 0.9 per cent, Ramsay Health Care rose 0.8, but Cochlear closed 0.7 per cent lower.
Woodside Petroleum rose 1.2 per cent after crude oil futures hit a nine-day high due to a smaller-than-expected build in US inventories. Santos, however, shed 0.5 per cent.
Bellamy's Australia fell 8.2 per cent on more bad news, this time around Chinese regulatory approval for its products, while Fairfax Media fell 3.7 per cent as talk of an imminent takeover offer from private equity quietened.
Navitas was the best stock in the top 200 today, adding 5.2 per cent after the education services business said enrolments at its University Partnerships climbed in semester one.
Stock watch: Dulux
Shares in paint company Dulux fell sharply at the open before recovering to close down 3.1 per cent to $6.59, after UBS downgraded the stock to a "sell". A team of analysts led by Romoun Lazar wrote that the downgrade followed Dulux's 7 per cent out-performance against the ASX 200 in the past month, which had left its valuation looking "stretched". "The stock's recent re-rating is unwarranted in our view, suggesting more upside than downside risk to valuation from here," they wrote. "Margins remain sustainable over the near term due to a generally benign competitive environment and better product mix. However, the top line is expected to remain subdued with housing turnover, a key driver of paint volumes in our view, showing negative growth over the past 8 consecutive months."
Job vacancies
Job vacancies rose for a third straight quarter to hit the highest since May 2011, a promising omen for a much-needed pick-up in labour demand. Total job vacancies increased 1.8 per cent to 185,600 seasonally adjusted in the December-February quarter, from 182,400 in the three months to November. Vacancies were 7.3 per cent higher than in the same period of 2016, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed. That was welcome news because employment growth has been disappointingly sluggish for some time and heavily skewed to part-time work.
House prices
House price growth accelerated further in March, with gains in Sydney and Melbourne pushing higher than previous cyclical peaks, preliminary CoreLogic figures showed. Data for the first 28 days of the month revealed Sydney prices have risen 19 per cent over the past year while Melbourne has posted a 16 per cent gain. The combined capital city average of 1.4 per cent - the same pace of growth as February - suggests that the strengthening in the two largest cities offsets further weakness in other markets.
Pound sterling
The triggering of Article 50 on Wednesday night didn't have much impact on the pound sterling, with most of the damage to the currency having been done in the immediate aftermath of the referendum. Since that time, the British currency is down 15 per cent against the US dollar and 12 per cent against the euro. Societe Generale's Kit Juckes said Wednesday's ceremony "changes nothing". "A divided Great Britain decided to leap lemming-like into the sea months ago, led by a Prime Minister who promises a bright future but has no clear road-map showing us how to get there."
Household wealth
Households saw their wealth balloon to a record $11.7 trillion last quarter as cash holdings topped a trillion dollars for the first time ever, boding well for spending in the face of tepid wages growth. Thursday's figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed households' net worth, after taking into account all their liabilities, rose 3.6 per cent to $9.4 trillion in the three months to December. Most of the gains came from a $247 billion increase in home and land values, which took them to $6.4 trillion.
