Worst in class: Why our sharemarket performance is a global outlier

July 1, 2026 — 3:58pm

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Congratulations are in order for Australians. Our median adult wealth has been ranked third globally – pipped at the post by only Luxembourg and Belgium, according to the UBS annual wealth report.

Helped by buoyant global sharemarkets and growth in house prices (which rose in 2025), the number of Australians with more than $US1 million ($1.45 million) in assets also grew by about 25,000 last year, to 1.6 million people, the Swiss bank said.

However, the 25,000 new Australians minted millionaires received no leg-up from the local sharemarket.

The performance of the Australian sharemarket tells a very different story, having squeezed out a disappointing gain of less than 2.8 per cent over the 2026 financial year to June 30. After accounting for inflation, the Australian market has gone backwards.

And compared with other major markets around the world, the performance of our listed stocks looks even more dire. The European STOXX 600 surged by almost 19 per cent over the past year, the US S&P 500 delivered a 20.8 per cent gain and its AI-heavy sibling the NASDAQ surged ahead by 28.7 per........

© The Sydney Morning Herald