Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index dropped 3.21 per cent in December, according to data from S&P Dow Jones Indices, ending the year down by 1.08 per cent.
The strong performance of the local share market in October and November failed to keep the ASX 200 out of the red annually but did help it remain up 9.40 per cent in the fourth quarter.
“Australian sectors’ performance diverged enormously in 2022, with 83 per cent separating best-performing energy, up 49 per cent, from laggard information technology, down 34 per cent,” said S&P Dow Jones Indices director, index investment strategy, Benedek Vörös.
“Perhaps surprisingly in a year of rising interest rates, utilities also had a great year, up 30 per cent, while real estate’s 21 per cent drop was a textbook performance in a year when bonds suffered steep losses.”
Materials (13.0 per cent) and financials (1.6 per cent) were the only other sectors to post gains over the year, while consumer discretionary (-20.4 per cent), communication services (-10.5 per cent), health care (-7.2 per cent), consumer staples (-4.7 per cent) and industrials (-3.0 per cent) were all in the red.
For December, every sector of the ASX 200 was down, with the biggest declines for consumer discretionary (-7.0 per cent), information technology (-5.4 per cent), industrials (-4.9 per cent), health care (-4.4 per cent) and energy (-4.1 per cent).
Somewhat smaller falls were seen for real estate (-3.8 per cent), financials (-3.5 per cent), communication services (-2.6 per cent), consumer staples (-1.8 per cent), utilities (-1.2 per cent) and materials (-0.9 per cent) sectors.
While down by more than 1 per cent for the year, the ASX 200 fared better than the both S&P Global Broad Market Index (BMI), which fell by almost 12 per cent, and the S&P 500, which plummeted nearly 18 per cent.
Over 2022, the S&P/ASX 20 (3.63 per cent), S&P/ASX 50 (1.89 per cent) and S&P/ASX 100 (0.63 per cent) all managed to deliver a positive result.
On the other hand, the S&P/ASX Energy Companies index (-22.51 per cent) and the S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries Index (-18.38 per cent) suffered significant declines.
Jon Bragg
Jon Bragg is a journalist for Momentum Media's Investor Daily, nestegg and ifa. He enjoys writing about a wide variety of financial topics and issues and exploring the many implications they have on all aspects of life.
