April 29 (Reuters) - Banks pulled Australian shares higher for a fourth straight session on Tuesday, supported by miners as Fortescue gained on higher quarterly iron ore shipments.

The S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO gained 0.6% to 8,043.30 points by 1251 GMT. The benchmark had ended 0.4% higher on Monday.

Rate-sensitive financials .AXFJ climbed for a ninth straight session ahead of the first-quarter inflation print on Wednesday. The "Big Four" lenders gained between 0.1% and 0.4%.

The inflation data is estimated to show a marginal drop, building the case for an interest rate cut by the Reserve Bank of Australia in May.

Miners .AXMM rose 0.4%. Fortescue FMG.AX, the world's fourth largest iron ore producer, hit its highest since March 28 on delivering higher third-quarter iron ore shipments after a train derailment hampered exports a year ago.

Whitehaven Coal WHC.AX, the country's biggest independent coal miner, jumped as much as 4.4% to its highest since April 15 on producing 9.2 million metric tons of coal in the third quarter, beating a Visible Alpha consensus estimate.

BHP Group BHP.AX and Rio Tinto RIO.AX were up 0.3% and 0.8%, respectively.

Energy stocks .AXEJ traded 0.9% higher to hit the highest since April 4, led by a 0.3% increase in Woodside Energy WDS.AX on greenlighting a $17.5 billion Liquefied Natural Gas $(LNG)$ project in Louisiana.

Technology stocks .AXIJ gained 1.3%, while healthcare stocks added 0.3%.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index .NZ50 slipped 0.1% to 12,086.05 points.

(Reporting by Adwitiya Srivastava in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy)

((Adwitiya.Srivastava@thomsonreuters.com))

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