Aust stocks open flat

The Australian sharemarket has opened flat despite strong gains on Wall Street after Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen was dovish about the US economy's recovery.

At 10.15am (AEDT), the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index fell 9.7 points, or 0.18%, to 5,385.1 points while the broader All Ordinaries index lost 10.8 points, or 0.2%, to 5,392.2 points.

The Fed chair's comments, in a speech in Chicago, underlined that unemployment was still a big challenge for the economy and that the Fed would maintain its extraordinary measures until the jobless rate fell a lot more.

"The recovery still feels like a recession to many Americans, and it also looks that way in some economic statistics," she said.

Locally, in economic news on Tuesday, Reserve Bank of Australia holds its monthly board meeting to make its interest rate decision.

It also is due to release its index of commodity prices for March.

No major equities news is expected.

In Australia, the market on Monday gained after a positive lead from global markets and more encouraging local economic data.

Data showed that new home sales were at a near three-year high, up 4.6%, seasonally-adjusted, in February; the TD Securities Melbourne Institute monthly inflation gauge rose by 0.2% in March and by 2.7% in the 12 months to March, the same as in February.