It's turning out to be another day of heavy selling for the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) so far this Thursday. At the time of writing, the ASX 200 is down by a nasty 0.87% and is back under 7,060 points.
And it's ASX bank shares that seem to be leading the charge off the cliff.
Backing up yesterday's heavy losses in the banking sector, today has seen major banks tumble. Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) shares are currently down a painful 2.36%. It's a similar story for most of the other ASX bank shares. But with one glaring exception – Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG).
Macquarie shares are presently defying the market's gloom. This ASX 200 bank is currently up by 0.68% at just over $180 a share. This follows from Macquarie's outperformance yesterday. The bank finished 0.99% higher on a day that saw utter carnage for most ASX banks.
So what's going on with Macquarie to warrant such an exceptional treatment from investors?
Image source: Getty Images
Macquarie share price rises amid new interest rates for savers
Well, it could be a by-product of a recent announcement the bank made.
It's likely that the painful losses investors have seen over this week in the bank sector are a result of the jumbo interest rate rise the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) delivered on Tuesday afternoon. As we covered earlier in the week, sharply rising rates have the potential to give mortgage-heavy banks a headache.
But Macquarie is using the new cash rate to get on the front foot, it seems.
Hot on the heels of the interest rate announcement, Macquarie revealed a new interest rate for its transaction accounts this week.
According to the company, as of 17 June, customers will enjoy an interest rate of up to 1.5% per annum on Macquarie's transaction accounts, up from the current 0.2% rate. This new rate is far higher than the interest rates offered by most of the other ASX banks.
So perhaps investors are viewing Macquarie's charge into offering market-leading interest rates as enough of a reason to spare the bank from the worst of the banking sectors' falls today.
Whatever the reason for Macquarie shares' resilience, no doubt investors will be pleased. At the current Macquarie share price, this ASX 200 bank share has a market capitalisation of $69.21 billion, with a dividend yield of 3.45%.
