Australian Blue Chip ASX 200 ended the last trading day of the year at 6587.1, down 1.5% for the year after record highs in February to 7-year lows in March on the coronavirus sell off given China being one of Australia’s largest trading partners. The ASX recovered with Australia handling of the virus spread but was hampered by a Sino-Australia trade war since the virus.
Australian Blue Chip ASX 200 ended the last trading day of the year at 6587.1, down 1.5% for the year after record highs in February to 7-year lows in March on the coronavirus sell off given China being one of Australia’s largest trading partners. The ASX recovered with Australia handling of the virus spread but was hampered by a Sino-Australia trade war since the virus.
Australian stocks recovered to near record highs after the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns and China trade uncertainty.
The ASX 200 recovered almost all of the COVID sell of by year end as massive fiscal stimulus measures from the RBA and global central banks coupled strong lockdown responses saw optimism return.
How Global Indices fared in 2020
- In the U.S. the S&P 500 and Dow closed at record levels at the year end.
- The tech heavy Nasdaq led the charge in 2020 up 43.64%, the largest gain since 2009
- S&P was up 16.26%. Since 2010 the S&P is up 240%, though 57% of the gain in the S&P was from just three stocks Microsoft, Amazon and Apple
- The Dow is closed up 7.25% after being down most tof the year, the DJIA was down over -36% at the March low
- In Europe the best performer was the German DAX which rose +3.6% for the year.
- Spain’s IBEX 30 was an even worse performer than the FTSE 100 down -15.5%.
- Italy’s MIB fell -5.4%,
- The French CAC 40 fell -7.1%
- The British FTSE 100 dumped. -14.3%
- The Australian ASX 200 Stock Market Closed Down 1.5% in 2020
- Japan’s Nikkei gained 16%,
- China’s Shanghai composite rose ripped 14% during 2020.
The Australian dollar rallied in line with stocks after an iniital fall in March to close the year strongly having rallied against the US dollar as massive US QE weakened the dollar. The stronger Aussie helped cover losses for overseas investors in the Australian stock market.
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