The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) is one of the world's top 20 exchanges, hosting over 2,000 listed companies worth approximately $2 trillion.

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Quick Facts:

• The ASX operates as Australia's primary stock exchange, combining market trading, clearinghouse operations, and trade and payment settlement.
• It represents roughly 80% of the Australian equity market value through its flagship ASX 200 index.
• 2,000+ companies and 300+ ETFs are listed on the exchange, spanning from mining giants to tech innovators.

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How does the ASX work?

The ASX combines three critical functions in one system.

As a market operator, it provides the electronic platform where buyers and sellers meet. Trading occurs through a sophisticated computer system that matches orders in milliseconds, replacing the traditional floor-based trading that once defined stock exchanges globally.

The exchange also acts as a clearinghouse, ensuring trades settle correctly. When you buy shares, the ASX guarantees the transaction completes, managing the transfer of securities and funds between parties.

Finally, it serves as a payments facilitator, processing the money flows that accompany each trade. This integrated approach reduces settlement risk and keeps the market running smoothly.

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What are ASX trading hours?

The ASX operates from 10:00am to 4:00pm Sydney time (AEST/AEDT) on business days, with a pre-open phase from 7:00am. 

Stocks open alphabetically in staggered intervals starting at 10:00am, followed by continuous trading until the closing auction at 4:00pm. 

The exchange observes Australian public holidays and adjusts for daylight saving time between October and April, which can affect coordination with international markets.

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Top ASX Indices

S&P/ASX 200

This is the exchange's flagship index. It tracks the 200 largest companies by market capitalisation and represents approximately 80% of Australia's equity market.

It serves as the primary benchmark for most investors and fund managers and is rebalanced quarterly to ensure it reflects the current market leaders.

All Ordinaries Index

Commonly called the All Ords, this index covers the top 500 companies on the ASX. 

It provides broader market exposure than the S&P/ASX 200, capturing roughly 80-90% of total market value. 

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The 11 ASX sectors

The ASX also breaks down into 11 sector-specific indices, allowing investors to track performance in areas like financials, materials, healthcare, and technology. 

These indices can help identify which parts of the Australian economy are strengthening or weakening.

1. Financials dominates as the largest sector, driven by Commonwealth Bank, NAB, Westpac, and ANZ. These banking giants provide lending, wealth management, and insurance services across Australia.
2. Materials ranks second, led by mining powerhouses BHP and Rio Tinto. This sector extracts and processes resources, including iron ore, coal, copper, and gold.
3. Consumer Discretionary includes retailers, media companies, and hospitality groups that benefit when household spending rises.
4. Industrials encompasses construction firms, airlines, and professional services businesses.
5. Healthcare features companies like CSL, a global biotech leader, and Cochlear, which produces hearing implants.
6. Real Estate features property developers and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) that own and manage commercial and residential assets.
7. Communication Services includes telecommunications providers like Telstra alongside media and entertainment companies.
8. Energy tracks oil and gas producers (many renewable energy companies typically fall under utilities).
9. Consumer Staples covers essential goods providers like supermarkets and food producers.
10. Information Technology includes software developers and IT services firms.
11. Utilities covers electricity, gas, and water suppliers, including renewable energy.

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Top ASX companies

Three companies consistently lead the S&P/ASX 200 by market capitalisation.

Commonwealth Bank (Mkt cap: A$259 bln)

Commonwealth Bank holds the top position on the ASX as Australia's biggest lender. 

Founded in 1911 and fully privatised by 1996, CBA offers retail banking, business lending, wealth management, and insurance.

Its performance often signals the health of the domestic economy.

BHP Group (Mkt cap: A$241 bln)

BHP Group stands as the world's largest mining company. 

Its diversified portfolio spans iron ore, copper, coal, and nickel operations globally. 

It serves as a bellwether for Australian commodity markets.

CSL Limited (Mkt cap: A$182 bln)

CSL Limited leads the Australian healthcare sector as a global biotech firm. 

Established in 1916, CSL develops treatments for rare diseases and manufactures influenza vaccines. 

The company demonstrates Australian innovation competing on the world stage.

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ASX top 20 companies:

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The ASX's role in Australia's economy

The ASX serves as a vital mechanism for capital formation in Australia. It tends to provide price signals that reflect market expectations. 

When share prices rise, it suggests optimism about economic conditions. Falling markets may indicate concerns about future growth.

Australian companies raise funds through initial public offerings and follow-on share sales on the ASX, using proceeds to expand operations, fund research, or pay down debt.

Investors in these shares benefit from potential capital gains and dividend income. Many Australians build retirement savings through superannuation funds that invest heavily in ASX-listed companies.

Employment in financial services also depends partly on a healthy stock market. Brokers, analysts, fund managers, and supporting roles exist because of active capital markets.

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Key takeaways

The ASX functions as a market operator, clearinghouse, and payments facilitator, providing the infrastructure that enables capital formation and supports retirement savings for millions of Australians.

Its flagship index, the S&P/ASX 200, tracks the 200 largest companies and captures about 80% of market capitalisation, while the All Ordinaries index covers the top 500. 

Financials and Materials dominate the exchange, led by Commonwealth Bank, BHP, and CSL, reflecting Australia's strength in banking and resources.

You can trade the S&P/ASX 200 Index CFD and over 230 ASX Share CFDs on GO Markets.

Last year was the year of the split. Tech titans like Nvidia, Broadcom, and MicroStrategy all executed 10-for-1 stock splits that sent retail investors (rightly or wrongly) into a buying frenzy.

But despite multiple major stocks climbing to record-high levels this year — Netflix $1,200, Meta $760, and AutoZone $4,200 — we have yet to see any significant split action in 2025.

Why Companies Split Their Stock

A stock split is financial engineering. It makes individual shares more affordable without changing the company's underlying value.

When a company executes a 4-for-1 split, shareholders receive four shares for every one they previously owned, while the stock price drops to one-quarter of its pre-split level. It doesn’t change the overall market capitalisation of the company or anything from a foundational value perspective.

However, it can have some psychological benefits and add flexibility for the company, which can often be enough for markets to rally around it.

Companies typically split their stock for a few key reasons:

Accessibility: High stock prices can deter smaller investors who prefer to buy full shares rather than fractions. A $1,000 stock becomes more psychologically appealing at $100 after a 10-for-1 split.

‍Liquidity: For the same psychological reasons, lower prices often increase trading volume, and the higher liquidity makes the stock even more appealing for further retail investments and lower-risk traders.

‍Employee compensation: Splits give greater flexibility when granting employees shares through stock option programs.

‍Market inclusion: Some indices, particularly the Dow Jones, favour companies with more moderate share prices.

Stock Splits So Far in 2025

Although at a far more measured pace than we saw in 2024, this year has seen some split activity, especially from outside the tech sector. Four prominent non-tech companies have completed forward splits so far in 2025:

• Coca-Cola Consolidated (COKE): Announced a 10-for-1 split
• O'Reilly Automotive (ORLY): Completed a 15-for-1 split
• Interactive Brokers (IBKR): Executed a 4-for-1 split in June
• Fastenal (FAST): Implemented a 2-for-1 split

However, the tech sector, which dominated split headlines in 2024, has been notably quiet this year.

Next Top Stock Split Candidates

1. Netflix (NFLX) - $1,200+ Per Share

Netflix is the most likely candidate for a 2025 stock split. The company's share price pushed through the $1,200 barrier for the first time following the release of positive financial results for H1 2025.

Netflix has conducted two stock splits in the past: a 2-for-1 stock split in 2004, and a 7-for-1 stock split in 2015 when its price hit $650 per share — almost half of what it is currently.

Netflix reported 18.9 million new subscribers during Q4 2024  (significantly more than the 8.2 million Wall Street forecast), and its advertising revenue is also expected to double by the end of 2025.If its momentum continues, Netflix executing a split before the end of the year is highly likely.

2. Meta Platforms (META) - $760+ Per Share

Meta is the only member of the Magnificent Seven stocks to never carry out a split. META currency trades at over $760 — a threshold where many companies regularly consider splitting.

Meta's winning streak over the past year drove its shares to an all-time high of $790 in August, and it is the top performer in 2025 among the Magnificent Seven.

Meta posted earnings beats of $47.5 billion in revenue in July, well above the $44.83 billion expectation, with earnings per share hitting $7.14 compared to the expected $5.89.

There is high speculation that the company could announce its first-ever split before the end of 2025. Its heavy AI spending, including raising 2025 AI expenditures to $66-72 billion, shows Meta’s confidence in its trajectory and would justify a stock split within the next few months.

3. Microsoft (MSFT) - $510 + Per Share

Microsoft currently trades around $510 per share. Its all-time high of $555.45 per share came in July 2025, driven by AI growth and cloud dominance.

Microsoft has executed nine stock splits since going public in 1986, with the most recent occurring in 2003, when shares traded around $48.The 22-year gap since the last split is the longest drought in the company's history, with all previous splits occurring below $200 per share.

Microsoft is one of only two stocks in the price-weighted Dow Jones Industrial Average trading above $500, alongside Goldman Sachs.

The Dow's price-weighted structure means higher-priced stocks have disproportionate influence on the index, creating pressure from S&P Dow Jones Indices to maintain balance.

There is also a competitive precedent for Microsoft to split. Its long-time rival, Apple, executed a split in 2020 when its stock was in the $450 range. And other tech giants, such as Nvidia and Broadcom, have also recently split their stocks, setting a strong precedent for Microsoft to follow.

4. Costco Wholesale (COST) - $960+ Per Share

Costco's consistent growth and near $1000 per share price make it a likely split candidate in the next 6-12 months. The company has split its stock multiple times in the past, but its last split was over 25 years ago in 2000. The stock is up 2,780% since then.

Costco’s reported Membership fee revenue increased 10% to $5.3 billion from June 2024 to May 2025, and its overall revenue of $268.78 billion is up 5.94% during the same period.

Despite the positive numbers, Costco’s management has remained noncommittal when asked about split plans, making timing uncertain despite the strong financial case.

5. AutoZone (AZO) - $4,230+ Per Share

AutoZone's current stock price ironically exceeds the cost of many used cars for which it sells parts.

Despite its massive per-share price, AutoZone has avoided splitting since 1994. The company's share buyback programs have nearly halved the share count in the past ten years, pushing the price higher.

This massive share price alone puts it firmly on the upcoming split candidate list. However, its history shows that they often delay and defy the split norm.

Stock Splits Are a Result, Not a Cause

Stock splits generate excitement, but they don’t change a business's fundamental value or the total value of the shares owned by shareholders.

Although research suggests split stocks often outperform broader markets in the 12 months following the announcement, this is generally a correlation, not a causation.

It is the strong business fundamentals that justified the split in the first place that usually lead to market outperformance, rather than the split itself. Anyone considering these stocks should focus on business fundamentals rather than split speculation.

That said, stock splits can generate hype and serve as catalysts for broader market attention. If the marketing strategy around the split is done well, it can help the company generate more interest from retail investors than otherwise anticipated.

Looking Ahead

2025 has seen fewer tech company stock splits than 2024, setting the stage for major announcements in the coming months. Companies like Netflix and Meta face increasing pressure to make their shares more accessible as prices reach new highs.

The next wave of stock splits will likely come from these established leaders whose strong business performance has driven their share prices to split-warranting levels.

Whether these companies ultimately decide to split their stocks remains to be seen, but the fundamental case for each remains strong regardless of corporate actions.

Most people think Nvidia got lucky with AI. They made chips that were good for gaming, and it turned out those same chips were good for machine learning.But that's not what happened at all…What actually happened reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of technology markets, and why investors often misread them.

Nvidia’s data center revenue flipped gaming in 2023

Why Markets Misread Platform Plays

Markets consistently undervalue platform investments while they're being made, then overvalue them once they succeed. Platform plays often appear to be terrible business decisions for years before they become obviously valuable.CUDA — Nvidia's software platform that made it possible to harness graphics card compute power for general-purpose usage — is the perfect example of this.When Nvidia was spending heavily on CUDA in the mid-2000s, the market saw it as an expensive distraction from its core graphics business.The investment made no sense. They were giving away free software to sell hardware, in an industry where hardware margins were already under pressure.Markets tend to price such technology investments through the lens of existing applications rather than potential ones. They can see the current build cost but fail to factor in the potential future value.

The Economics of Platform Capture

Technology markets have the somewhat unique capacity to shift from competing products to competing ecosystems.If this shift from product to ecosystem wars occurs, traditional competitive analysis can become almost useless.In a product market, a 10% advantage might translate to a 10% market share gain. In an ecosystem market, a 10% advantage can translate to a 90% market share, due to network effects and switching costs.This is why established companies with superior resources often lose to platform challengers. AMD and Intel both had as much (or more) money and engineering talent as Nvidia during its CUDA development years. But they were competing in the wrong game. They were optimizing for product performance while Nvidia was building ecosystem lock-in.

The Platform Investment Paradox

Platform investments create a paradox for public markets. The companies that make the biggest platform bets often see their stock prices suffer during the investment phase.Product investments have visible, measurable returns that markets can model. Platform investments have uncertain returns that depend on market timing and adoption patterns that are impossible to predict.This is why markets consistently undervalue platform companies during their growth phase. Traditional financial metrics capture the cost of platform investment but miss the value creation occurring in the ecosystem.By the time platform value becomes visible in financial results, the strategic opportunity has usually already passed. The companies that capture platform markets are typically those that invest before the value is measurable, not after it becomes obvious.

Nvidia’s 25-year Annual revenue growth - image by Motley Fool

Ecosystem Network Effect

Every developer who learns CUDA makes the Nvidia ecosystem more valuable. Every model trained on Nvidia infrastructure increases switching costs for the entire AI market.Gaining a competitive advantage in platform markets is more about ecosystem momentum than building superior products. The platform that attracts the most developers and creates the most applications becomes increasingly difficult to displace.Markets often misinterpret this momentum as a temporary competitive advantage rather than recognizing it as a structural shift in the market. They keep expecting "competition" to erode platform dominance, not realizing that successful platforms tend to make competition irrelevant.

What This Means for Market Analysis

The Nvidia pattern suggests that technology market analysis needs to focus more on ecosystem dynamics and less on product comparisons. The companies that will dominate the next wave of technology markets are likely building platforms today for applications that don't yet exist at scale.This requires looking beyond current revenue and margins to understand what infrastructure is being built for the future. The most important question isn't whether a company has the best current product, but whether they're creating the ecosystem that future applications will be built on.Of course, such companies are unlikely to achieve the heights of Nvidia, but the ones that find success will likely follow the same pattern — years of patient platform building followed by explosive ecosystem capture when the market inflection point arrives.Trade Nvidia and thousands of other Share CFDs on GO Markets — starting from just US$0.02 per share with no monthly data fee.