Updates to close

By Rishav Chatterjee and Nichiket Sunil

Nov 22 (Reuters) - Australian shares jumped to close just shy of a record high on Friday, led by a rally in heavyweight financials and energy stocks, while investors keenly awaited the country's key inflation figures next week to gauge the monetary policy path.

The S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO closed 0.9% higher at 8,400.8 points. It hit a record high on Tuesday.

Australia's retail inflation data for October is due later in the day, which, according to analysts, is expected to edge higher leading to reduced chances of an early interest rate cut.

Westpac is the latest major Australian bank to push its rate cut call to May from February after the latest minutes of the Bank of Australia meeting suggested that the central bank will need to see more than one good quarterly inflation report before cutting.

Financials .AXFJ, which typically thrive in a high interest rate scenario, gained 1.2% with top lender Commonwealth Bank of Australia CBA.AX rising 1.8% to end at a record high.

Energy stocks .AXEJ followed suit in the resource-heavy bourse, ending 2.2% in the green.

Woodside WDS.AX and Santos STO.AX climbed 2.1% and 1.7%, respectively, after oil prices jumped as escalations in geo-political tensions between Russia and Ukraine intensified risks around global supply. Whitehaven Coal WHC.AX gained 3.4%.

"The energy sector is leading gains today, but the banks are doing much of the heavy lifting. Commonwealth Bank and Westpac have both rallied today, continuing the strong performance we’ve seen from financials this year," said Josh Gilbert, analyst at eToro AUS Capital.

"If geopolitical tensions continue to heat up, we can expect further volatility across the energy sector."

Among other sub-indexes, miners .AXMM, real estate .AXRE and healthcare stocks .AXHJ gained 0.8%, 1.1% and 1.3% respectively.

Technology majors WiseTech WTC.AX and Megaport MP1.AX slumped 12.4% and 9.5% as both firms' earnings forecasts failed to appease investors.

ASX-shares of diary giant A2 Milk A2M.AX ATM.NZ closed 13.3% higher after lifting revenue guidance and announcing it would start paying dividends.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index .NZ50 closed 2.2% higher.

(Reporting by Rishav Chatterjee and Nichiket Sunil in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)

((Rishav.Chatterjee@thomsonreuters.com;))

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