A late Christmas sharemarket rally is exciting investors in the final few days of trade before the market closes for 2023

The last two weeks of December have seen Australia’s sharemarket rise 1.4 per cent on average, over the last 15 years.

A late Christmas sharemarket rally is exciting investors in the final few days of trade before the market closes for 2023. Britta Campion / The Australian.

A late Christmas sharemarket rally is exciting investors in the final few days of trade before the market closes for 2023, holding out the hope that many equity holders will end the year on a high, with a final few economic releases and company announcements to close out December.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 Index ended last week at 7,442.7 points and is up 5.6 per cent over the last month and 7.15 per cent for the calendar year to date, as hopes that the latest cycle of interest rate tightening by central banks is near its end as inflation comes under control.

AMP head of investment strategy and chief economist Shane Oliver said while Australian equities remain vulnerable to concerns about sticky inflation, recession fears, worries about the Chinese economy and geopolitics they are likely to see more upside in the months ahead.

“As inflation continues to ease, the monetary policy environment turns progressively less threatening and then more supportive and positive share market seasonality remains in place … (and) the Santa Rally normally kicking in from about now.

“So, while we should expect lots of bumps along the way, our base case remains that global and Australian shares can trend up.”

Investors should take the lead from positive moves on Wall Street over the weekend when the Australian market opens on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished at a third straight record Friday. The blue-chip index, which topped 37,000 for the first time this week, added 0.2 per cent to finish at 37,305.16, a third straight record.

The broadbased S&P 500 Index closed flat at 4,719.19, while the technology heavy Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.4 per cent to 14,813.92. For the seventh straight time, all three indices scored weekly gains.

Over the last 15 years the period from mid-December to year end has seen an average gain of 0.7 per cent in US shares with shares up in this two-week period 10 years out of 15. In Australia, over the last 15 years the average gain over the last two weeks of December has been 1.4 per cent with shares up 10 years out of 15.

On the local economic and company news front, minutes of the latest Reserve Bank monetary policy deliberations will be released on Tuesday and ANZ Bank will hold its annual general meeting on Thursday. Latest US GDP figures will be released on Saturday morning, Australian time.