The Australian sharemarket closed lower on Wednesday to end a shortened trading week, despite a record S&P 500 close on Wall Street.
The ASX 200 was down 0.4% for an early Christmas Eve finish at 8,762.7. The sharemarket will be closed on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
For the holiday-shortened week, the index gained 1.6%.
All sectors except materials finished lower, with health care posting the largest decrease. Materials shares were supported by continued record-breaking gold prices, with Northern Star stock up 1%.
Monash IVF stock lost 13.4% today after a consortium led by Genesis Capital and Soul Patts withdrew its A$312 million bid to buy the company. Neither Monash IVF nor the consortium have disclosed why the offer was withdrawn.
Shares in Monash IVF are down 43.3% across 2025 to date, having plummeted in April and June after reports of two separate embryo mix-up incidents at its fertility clinics.
Meanwhile, Lendlease gained 4.8% after saying on Tuesday evening that it would develop a new $2.2 billion commercial tower over Sydney Metro’s under-construction Hunter Street station. The tower will be complete in 2032, Lendlease said.
In the United States, the S&P 500 closed at a record high of 6,909.79, supported by technology stocks and stronger-than-expected gross domestic product data. Its intraday all-time high is 6,920.34.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.6%.
Australia’s two-year government bond yields were unchanged at 4.038%, while 10-year yields were also roughly flat at 4.745%.
