Live status, 2026 calendar and Australia/Sydney timezone
The ASX (Australian Securities Exchange) is Australia’s primary stock exchange and one of the world’s twenty largest by market capitalisation. Based in Sydney, it is concentrated in natural resources, banking and real estate.
Its benchmark index is the S&P/ASX 200, which tracks the 200 largest companies listed in Australia.
The ASX has a notable quirk for European traders: its time-zone offsets run opposite to North Asia’s. When it’s winter in Europe, it’s summer in Australia, so the gap shifts across the year.
The ASX opens at 10:00 and closes at 16:00 Sydney time, in a single continuous six-hour session. Unlike Tokyo or Hong Kong, it has no lunch break.
The gap shifts with the seasons because the two hemispheres change their clocks in opposite directions.
| Reference | Trading session |
|---|---|
| Sydney (local) | 10:00 – 16:00 (AEST/AEDT) |
| London, southern summer (+11 h) | 23:00 – 05:00 |
| London, transition (+10 h) | 00:00 – 06:00 |
| London, southern winter (+9 h) | 01:00 – 07:00 |
The ASX’s 2026 calendar combines Australian national holidays and the New South Wales state holidays, where the exchange is based.
| Date | Holiday | Session |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday 1 January 2026 | New Year’s Day | Closed |
| Monday 26 January 2026 | Australia Day | Closed |
| Friday 3 April 2026 | Good Friday | Closed |
| Monday 6 April 2026 | Easter Monday | Closed |
| Monday 8 June 2026 | King’s Birthday | Closed |
| Thursday 24 December 2026 | Christmas Eve | Half day (close 14:10) |
| Friday 25 December 2026 | Christmas Day | Closed |
| Monday 28 December 2026 | Boxing Day | Closed |
| Thursday 31 December 2026 | New Year’s Eve | Half day (close 14:10) |
ANZAC Day (25 April) falls on a Saturday in 2026, with no impact on trading.
Australia is a highly specialised market, concentrated in a few sectors:
The ASX is also the go-to exchange for mining exploration stocks (junior miners), popular with resource-focused investors.
The ASX doesn’t overlap with the US sessions or the European sessions.
| Time slot (London) | Active markets |
|---|---|
| 23:00 – 05:00 (winter) | ASX only |
| 01:00 – 07:00 (summer) | ASX only |
| 08:00 – 14:30 | Europe only (ASX closed) |
| 14:30 – 16:30 | Europe + US |
| 16:30 – 21:00 | US only |
The ASX closes about 1 to 3 hours before London and European markets open, so there is no real overlap.
To follow the ASX from Europe without staying up all night, a platform like ProRealTime lets you set alerts and orders on Australian stocks and indices, then backtest your strategies during European hours.
No. The ASX trades Monday to Friday only, excluding public holidays.
Australia is in the southern hemisphere, which flips the seasons. When it’s summer in Europe (BST), it’s winter in Australia (AEST), and vice versa. The two regions don’t change their clocks on the same dates, so the gap varies between 9 and 11 hours depending on the period.
The AUD/USD and EUR/AUD currency pairs are the most accessible. For equities, a few European platforms offer UCITS ETFs tracking the Australian market. Finally, the two mining giants BHP and Rio Tinto are also listed in London (LSE), making them tradable during European hours.
The S&P/ASX 200 is Australia’s benchmark index. It comprises the 200 largest companies listed on the ASX, weighted by free-float market capitalisation. It is jointly managed by S&P Dow Jones Indices and the ASX.
Maxime holds two master’s degrees from the SKEMA Business School and FFBC. As founder and editor-in-chief of NewTrading.fr, he writes daily about financial trading.
