ASX Holidays 2026 and 2027: Full Trading Calendar

The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) is Australia’s main share market, based in Sydney. Regular cash market trading runs from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm Sydney time (AEST in winter, AEDT in summer), with a closing single price auction that settles final prices at around 4:10 pm to 4:12 pm. The next interruption to normal trading is Thursday, December 24, 2026, when the ASX closes early for Christmas Eve, ending trading at 2:10 pm Sydney time. The exchange is then shut on Christmas Day, Friday, December 25, 2026, and again on Monday, December 28, 2026 for the Boxing Day substitute holiday. Because Sydney sits 16 hours ahead of New York in the southern summer, an ASX session that opens at 10:00 am AEDT begins at 6:00 pm ET the previous evening and 11:00 pm in London. Full calendars are published by the ASX on its cash market trading calendar. If you also track the data releases that move Australian shares overnight, see our hubs for the US CPI report and the US jobs report.

ASX closures follow New South Wales public holidays rather than every state holiday, so a day off in Melbourne or Brisbane does not necessarily shut the national share market. When a holiday such as Christmas Day or Boxing Day falls at a weekend, Australia moves the public holiday to the following Monday or Tuesday, and the ASX follows that substitute day.

ASX holidays 2026

These are the ASX non-trading days and early closes scheduled for the remainder of 2026.

Boxing Day, December 26, 2026, falls on a Saturday, which is why the public holiday and the market closure move to Monday, December 28. Tuesday, December 29 and Wednesday, December 30 are normal full trading days.

ASX holidays 2027

The 2027 calendar contains three full closures in the first half of the year, one in June, and the usual December cluster.

Two features of 2027 are worth planning around. Australia Day falls on a Tuesday, January 26, 2027, giving a single mid-week closure rather than a long weekend, and Easter produces a four-day break from Friday, March 26 to Monday, March 29, 2027. In December 2027, Christmas Day falls on a Saturday and Boxing Day on a Sunday, so the market is shut on both Monday, December 27 and Tuesday, December 28, 2027.

Early closes and half days

The ASX has only two scheduled early closes each year, and they are always the last trading day before Christmas and the last trading day of the calendar year. On those days continuous trading ends at 2:10 pm Sydney time, with the closing auction running immediately afterwards to set official closing prices. There is no afternoon session.

• Thursday, December 24, 2026: early close at 2:10 pm AEDT, which is 10:10 pm ET on December 23 and 3:10 am in London on December 24.
• Thursday, December 31, 2026: early close at 2:10 pm AEDT, which is 10:10 pm ET on December 30 and 3:10 am in London on December 31.
• Friday, December 24, 2027: early close at 2:10 pm AEDT.
• Friday, December 31, 2027: early close at 2:10 pm AEDT.

Liquidity, meaning the ease of buying or selling without moving the price, is usually thin on these half days. Spreads between bid and offer prices widen and index-tracking flows are small, so large orders can have an outsized effect. Traders who use market-on-close orders should note that the closing auction happens roughly two hours earlier than usual.

Trading hours on the ASX

A normal ASX day has several distinct phases rather than one continuous block.

Time zone conversions matter because Australia observes daylight saving in the southern summer while the northern hemisphere does not. In AEDT (roughly October to April, UTC+11) the 10:00 am open is 6:00 pm ET the previous day and 11:00 pm London, and the 4:00 pm close is midnight ET and 5:00 am London. In AEST (roughly April to October, UTC+10) the 10:00 am open is 8:00 pm ET the previous day and 1:00 am London, and the 4:00 pm close is 2:00 am ET and 7:00 am London. Because the changeover dates for Australian, US and European clocks do not line up, the gap between Sydney and New York shifts by an hour or two for a few weeks in April and October.

The ASX cash market does not operate a retail pre-market or after-hours session in the American sense. Orders sit in the pre-open queue from 7:00 am and business is reported after the close, but price discovery outside 10:00 am to 4:00 pm happens mainly in futures, in Australian shares listed elsewhere, and in the currency market.

How holidays affect settlement, dividends and options

Australian cash equities settle on a T+2 basis, meaning cash and shares change hands two business days after the trade. Holidays extend the calendar gap without changing the rule, because only business days count. A share bought on Wednesday, December 23, 2026 settles on Tuesday, December 29, 2026, since December 25 and December 28 are not settlement days. The ASX publishes a separate settlement calendar alongside its trading calendar, and it also reflects national and New South Wales public holidays.

The practical consequences are worth listing:

• Dividends and ex-dividend dates: to receive a dividend you must own the shares before the ex-dividend date. Because the ex-date is set by reference to business days, a holiday can pull it earlier in the week than you expect. Check the company’s announcement rather than counting days yourself.
• Cash availability: sale proceeds arrive two business days after the trade, so selling before a long weekend delays access to the money.
• Options and futures expiry: index and equity option expiries roll to an adjacent business day when the scheduled date is a holiday. ASX publishes expiry calendars for its derivatives markets separately from the cash market calendar.
• Corporate actions: rights issue and takeover timetables are counted in business days, so a Christmas or Easter break lengthens the wall-clock timetable.
• Interest and margin: brokers still charge interest on margin loans over holidays. Closed markets do not pause borrowing costs.

Other markets

Australian government bonds and other domestic fixed income trade over the counter between banks and follow the same public holidays, so there is effectively no local bond market on ASX closure days. Bond and index futures on the ASX 24 derivatives market keep a longer schedule than shares, with day and overnight sessions, but they too suspend around Christmas, New Year and Easter and are shortened on the early-close days. Traders who want to see how Australian shares are likely to open after a holiday usually watch SPI 200 futures and the Australian dollar.

Cryptocurrency markets never close, which is why bitcoin and other tokens sometimes make large moves during long holiday breaks when equity hedging is impossible.

International alignment is partial. Christmas Day and New Year’s Day close almost every major venue, including the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq, the London Stock Exchange, Euronext, Deutsche Boerse and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Good Friday and Easter Monday close the ASX, London, Frankfurt, Paris and Hong Kong, but the New York Stock Exchange closes on Good Friday only and Tokyo does not observe Easter at all. Boxing Day, December 26, is a holiday for the ASX, London and Hong Kong but a normal trading day in New York. Australia Day and the King’s Birthday are purely local, so the ASX can be shut while Wall Street and Europe trade normally, and Japanese holidays such as Golden Week shut Tokyo while Sydney is open. That mismatch is why Australian investors sometimes return from a break to a large opening gap: overseas news accumulated while the local market could not react.

What It Means for Your Money

If you invest through a superannuation fund, a pension or an exchange traded fund, a holiday changes almost nothing about your long-term returns. What it changes is timing, and timing can cost money if you are not aware of it.

• Buying and selling shares: orders placed while the ASX is closed queue for the next session and execute at the opening auction price, which can be well away from the last close if global markets moved. If the price matters to you, use a limit order, which sets the worst price you will accept, rather than a market order.
• Getting your cash out: with T+2 settlement plus a two or three day holiday break, money from a sale on December 23, 2026 will not be in your account until after Christmas. Plan any bill or transfer around that.
• Mortgages and savings rates: these are set by the Reserve Bank of Australia’s cash rate and by bank funding costs, not by whether the share market is open. Exchange holidays do not move your home loan repayment, though banks may process transfers a day later.
• The Australian dollar: the currency market keeps trading through local holidays, so the pound, dollar and euro can move against the Australian dollar while Sydney shares are shut. That matters if you hold overseas investments, travel money or make cross-border payments.
• Prices and jobs: nothing in this calendar affects inflation or the labour market. Holiday closures are plumbing, not economics.

The single most useful habit is to check the trading calendar before setting a deadline that depends on markets: a settlement date, a dividend record date, an options expiry, or a transfer between brokers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the ASX open today?

The ASX trades Monday to Friday from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm Sydney time, except on the dates in the tables above. The next interruption is the early close on Thursday, December 24, 2026, followed by full closures on December 25 and December 28, 2026.

What time does the ASX close on Christmas Eve?

Trading ends at 2:10 pm Sydney time on Christmas Eve, with the closing auction immediately afterwards. In 2026 that is 10:10 pm ET on December 23 and 3:10 am in London on December 24. The same 2:10 pm close applies on New Year’s Eve.

Is the Australian bond market open on ASX holidays?

No. Australian government and corporate bonds trade over the counter on business days and follow the same public holidays, so trading is effectively closed when the ASX is closed and shortened on the two early-close days.

How many holidays does the ASX have each year?

Typically around seven to nine full closures a year, plus two scheduled early closes on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. The exact count varies because Australian holidays that fall at a weekend are substituted to the following Monday or Tuesday.

Where is the official ASX holiday calendar?

The ASX publishes its authoritative cash market trading calendar and a separate settlement calendar on its website at asx.com.au. The exchange reserves the right to declare additional non-business days, so the official page is the final word.