The Australia 200 trades 27 points (-0.31%) lower at 8796 as of 3.45pm AEST.
Quiet end to FY 2026 keeps ASX 200 drifting
The ASX 200 is drifting lower this afternoon after hitting an intraday high of 8836.4 in early trade, in what is shaping up to be one of the quietest ends to a financial year (FY) in recent memory.
Many portfolio managers appear more focused on end-of-month, end-of-quarter and end-of-financial-year reporting, while also juggling family commitments during the mid-year school holidays along the eastern seaboard.
Further compounding the subdued tone, a critical United States (US) non-farm payrolls report lands on Thursday night and will help shape expectations around the likelihood of a Federal Reserve (Fed) rate hike before year-end, all ahead of the 4 July long weekend.
Adding to the lack of catalysts, today’s release of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) June meeting minutes reiterated the central bank’s hawkish bias but offered little new insight into its thinking.
With few fresh highlights to report today, it is a good time to run the ruler over the ASX 200’s performance for the year.
Why is the ASX 200 lagging global peers?
As things stand, the ASX 200 is on track to finish FY 2026 with a modest gain of around 254 points, or approximately 3%. The accumulation index, which includes dividends, has performed better and sits up around 6.3% for the year.
This compares to some of the stronger performers elsewhere:
Korean stock market (KOSPI): +18.0%
Japanese stock market (Nikkei225): +7.1%
US tech-heavy Nasdaq 100: +31.3%
UK stock market (FTSE): +19.56%
French stock market (CAC ): +9.24%
German stock market (DAX): +4.03%
Behind the ASX 200’s underperformance this year have been three RBA rate hikes, still-elevated inflation, the fallout from the Middle East conflict, recent federal budget tax changes, falling commodity prices and, perhaps most notably, a lack of artificial intelligence (AI)-driven tech stocks, which have powered the outperformance in the KOSPI, Nikkei and Nasdaq.
