Australian sharemarket dips amid low holiday trading volumes
Updated ,first published
Miners and technology companies weighed on investors in the first session of the new year as the Australian share market performed poorly.
The S&P/ASX 200 index was down 3.3 points, or 0.04 per cent, to 8711 points at midday (AEDT), with five of 11 industrial sectors trading in the green.
The Australian dollar was stronger, at around 66.90¢.
The S&P/ASX 200 closed 2.8 points lower at 8714.30 on Wednesday as the market ended New Year’s Eve early. It remained closed on New Year’s Day.
Energy firms (up 0.5 percent) and health care companies (up 0.4 percent) were on the rise; Ampol and AGL gained 0.9 per cent, driven by a 0.6 per cent increase in crude oil prices and Ramsay Healthcare’s 0.8 per cent gain.
Crude oil rose to $57.51 per barrel on Thursday. Trading Economics says that the price of crude oil last month fell by 1.92 percent and 21.35 percent compared to the same period last year.
Life360 was among the worst-performing large companies, losing 3.4 per cent, while Xero lost 1.2 per cent, contributing to the 0.6 per cent decline in the tech sector.
Lithium miner Pls Group was the best performing large-cap company (up 1.5%). Mineral Resources rose 1.1 per cent but gold miners weighed on the Australian share market after a stunning performance in 2025, driven by higher gold prices.
Iron ore giant BHP recouped initial losses to trade up around 0.4 per cent, but shares in gold miner Northern Star fell 11.3 per cent and Evolution Mining lost 1.2 per cent.
Northern Star’s decline follows declines in gold and silver prices on the last trading day of 2025; However, both precious metals are on track for their best year since 1979, supported by strong demand for safe-haven assets due to rising geopolitical risks and interest rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve. The so-called bearish trade, triggered by inflation fears and rising debt burdens in advanced economies, helped further fuel the scorching rally.
In gold, which is by far the larger market, these factors led investors to turn to bullion-backed exchange-traded funds, while central banks extended their buying sprees for years. While spot gold was around $4320 ($6473) per ounce, silver fell towards $71.
The Australian share market’s marginal gains in 2025 were well below those of many other developed countries’ stock markets. Global stocks are poised for their biggest annual gain in six years, boosted by interest rate cuts from the US Federal Reserve and growing interest in artificial intelligence companies.
Wall Street’s major indexes ended the final trading session of 2025 lower but posted big annual gains after a roller-coaster year dominated by President Donald Trump’s tariff uncertainties and enthusiasm around artificial intelligence-focused stocks. The S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq posted double-digit gains last year; This is the third consecutive year this uptick has been seen in the green and was last seen in 2019-21.
“I don’t expect the last few days to have such a big impact on next year’s performance, it is quite normal for any bull market to experience cost moments,” said Giuseppe Sette, co-founder and president of Reflexivity, pointing to profit-making opportunities in times of low liquidity.
Wall Street has staged a spectacular comeback from its April lows, when Trump’s “Emancipation Day” tariffs sparked a meltdown in global markets, driving investors away from U.S. stocks and threatening growth by muddying the interest rate outlook.
Throughout the year, S&P 500 increased by 16.39 percent, Nasdaq by 20.36 percent and Dow index by 12.97 percent. The Russell 2000 small-cap index rose 11.26 percent.
Still, annual gains for the benchmark S&P 500 index lag behind some global indexes, particularly the Asia-Pacific index excluding Japan, which is up about 27 percent in 2025 as stock investors diversify.
“We expect this outperformance to deepen both within the U.S. and in international markets in 2026,” said Jitania Kandhari, chief information officer for the solutions and multi-asset group at Morgan Stanley Investment Management.
“The era of short winners is giving way to a broader, more globally distributed opportunity set. The equal-weighted S&P looks good relative to the cap-weighted S&P.”
Millie Muroi is the economics writer for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. He was previously an economics correspondent for the Canberra Press Gallery and a banking writer in Sydney.Connect with: excitement or email.
