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By John Biju

Nov 19 (Reuters) - Australian shares jumped to a record high on Tuesday, led by financials in broad-based buying, while minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia's November policy meeting showed the central bank pondered scenarios for rate changes.

The S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO closed 0.9% higher at 8,374, after hitting a life high of 8,446.40 earlier in the session.

"The market was oversold last week, and we are seeing a broad-based relief rally today," said Brad Smoling, managing director at Smoling Stockbroking.

Minutes of the RBA's Nov. 4-5 meeting showed the central bank again discussed scenarios under which the cash rate of 4.35% may need to be cut, raised or held steady for a prolonged period.

"We see the minutes containing some guarded references which could imply the board is opening the door to a policy easing," analysts at ANZ said in a note.

The next move of the RBA will be to follow the U.S. Federal Reserve with a 25-basis-point rate cut, said Smoling, adding that this would be a big support for an end-of-the-year rally in the benchmark index.

Interest rate-sensitive financials .AXFJ rose 1% to hit an all-time high.

"Banks are sensing a cut in rates as the next move by the RBA. They have been under pressure with massive property debt exposures to deal with. There may now be some relief on the horizon for them," said Smoling.

Gold stocks .AXGD surged 3.7% as bullion prices hit a one-week high. GOL/

Technology stocks .AXIJ jumped as much as 3.9% to hit a record high before paring some gains. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 closed higher overnight ahead of AI leader Nvidia's NVDA.O results on Wednesday. .N

Among individual stocks, SRG Global SRG.AX rose 7.1% to hit its highest level since May 2012, after the diversified industrial services provider won contracts worth A$700 million ($455.42 million).

In New Zealand, the benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index .NZ50 advanced 0.4% to 12,816.32.

(Reporting by John Biju in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)

((John.Biju@thomsonreuters.com;))

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