THE sharemarket pared an early decline as bank stocks rose after Macquarie Equities upgraded its earnings estimates for the sector, while upgrading National Australia Bank from neutral to outperform.
National Australia Bank, ANZ and Westpac rose between 1.0 per cent and 1.3 per cent.
At 11.45am AEDT, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 was up 0.3 per cent at 4972, having recovered from a six-week low of 4927.9 in early trading on concerns over German manufacturing data and the Cyprus bailout issue.
Growth in German business activity slowed in March as the manufacturing sector-the heart of its dominant export industry-surprisingly contracted. Investors were also jittery over a warning from the European Central Bank that it would cut emergency funding to Cyprus on Tuesday unless the island nation satisfied market the requirements of a planned international financial bailout.
