ASX filled with festive cheer as markets shrug off COVID Christmas scare

Australian shareholders are feeling festive on Christmas Eve, with the ASX 200 set to rise again this morning as the country calms down from its COVID-19 holiday scare.

As of 6:45am, futures in the ASX 200 were trading 0.5 higher at 6,613 points.

The benchmark had been rocked for several days as Sydney battled a fresh outbreak of COVID-19 that threatened to derail Christmas.

However, it closed higher for the first time in four days on Wednesday, on news that numbers of cases were steady and most parts of Sydney will be able to have gatherings of 10 people on Christmas Day.

The ASX will close at 2.10pm on Thursday and be closed on both Friday and Monday before reopening on Tuesday.