On Thursday 25 December 2025 (25.12.2025), the UK stock market is not open. The London Stock Exchange (LSE)lists Christmas Day as a non-trading day, meaning there is no on-exchange buying or selling of UK-listed shares on the main market during the holiday. ^[1]

For anyone checking portfolios, planning trades, or wondering why prices are “stuck” today: this is a scheduled market closure, and it also affects the usual post-trade processes tied to business days. ^[2]

Is the UK stock market open on Christmas Day 2025?

No. The LSE is closed on Christmas Day (25 December 2025). It’s officially treated as a non-trading day on the exchange calendar. ^[3]

In practical terms, that means:

No live trading session for UK shares on the LSE today
FTSE indices won’t have a new “trading-day” close because there’s no UK cash equity session
Many brokers may still show prices and allow you to prepare orders, but execution depends on the exchange reopening (more on that below)

What about Boxing Day, and when does the London market reopen?

The holiday break doesn’t end with Christmas Day. Friday 26 December 2025 (Boxing Day) is also widely treated as a market holiday for London trading, and market coverage on Christmas Eve repeatedly flagged that London’s market would be closed Thursday and Friday for the two holidays. ^[4]

A London market briefing published on 24 December 2025 also noted that after the two-day holiday closure, the market would re-open for normal trading hours on Monday and Tuesday next week, before another year-end half-day. ^[5]

Christmas trading hours around the LSE: what happened on 24.12.2025?

While 25.12.2025 is fully closed, the day before—Wednesday 24 December 2025 (Christmas Eve)—was not a normal session.

The LSE calendar marked 24 December as a Christmas holiday half-day, with the market closing process commencing from 12:30 London time. ^[6]

That shorter timetable showed up clearly in market coverage: multiple reports described thin volumes and subdued trading as investors headed into the holiday break. ^[7]

The Latest UK Stock Market News from 24 December 2025

Because today (25.12.2025) is a market holiday, the most recent “live” UK stock market session was Christmas Eve, 24.12.2025—and that session generated the final batch of UK market headlines before the shutdown.

Below is a rounded, publication-ready recap of the main market-moving themes and corporate stories reported on 24 December 2025.

1) FTSE 100 ends lower in a shortened Christmas Eve session

In the final UK session before Christmas, London equities drifted lower in low-volume trade:

FTSE 100 closed down about 0.2%
Trading was described as quiet, with investors paring back positions ahead of the holiday closure
Big pharma names AstraZeneca and GSK were among the stocks cited as weighing on the index ^[8]

A separate London close report put the FTSE 100 at 9,870.68 by the end of the shortened session, underscoring how close the market was to recent highs despite the day’s softness. ^[9]

Even with the Christmas Eve dip, Reuters noted the FTSE 100 was tracking a strong 2025 performance overall, helped by sectors such as miners, financials and defence stocks. ^[10]

2) BP’s Castrol deal was a standout corporate headline

One of the biggest UK corporate stories on 24 December 2025 came from BP, which agreed to sell a 65% stake in its Castrol lubricants business to Stonepeak for about $6 billion.

Key details reported included:

A deal valuing Castrol at roughly $10.1 billion
A structure in which BP retains 35% in a new joint venture
The move being part of BP’s broader plan to raise cash through disposals and strengthen its balance sheet over the coming years ^[11]

Market coverage on the day repeatedly pointed to the Castrol transaction as a rare burst of major deal activity in an otherwise quiet, shortened session. ^[12]

3) SolGold agrees to a takeover by Jiangxi Copper

Another notable London-linked deal story on 24 December 2025 involved SolGold, a London-listed miner focused on Ecuador.

Reuters reported that SolGold agreed to be acquired by its top investor Jiangxi Copper, in a deal valuing the company at around £867 million (about $1.17 billion). ^[13]

An official market announcement dated 24 December 2025 described a recommended cash acquisition at 28 pence per share, also giving the ~£867 million valuation figure—confirming the scale and structure of the offer. ^[14]

4) Secure Trust Bank to sell its motor finance business

UK financials also featured in the day’s corporate flow. Reuters reported that Secure Trust Bank would sell its consumer vehicle finance business to funds managed by LCM Partners for 458.6 million pounds (about $619 million). ^[15]

In a holiday-shortened session where macro catalysts were limited, single-company deal updates like this attracted disproportionate attention—especially for investors focused on UK mid-caps and financial-sector restructuring.

5) Europe steadies near highs while global markets look to a “Santa rally”

Although London closed early and then shut entirely for Christmas, the broader global market backdrop on 24 December 2025 still mattered to UK investors, especially those holding internationally exposed names.

Reuters reported that European shares were muted after hitting record highs earlier in the week, with 2025 performance supported by themes including easing interest rates and shifting investor allocations. ^[16]

In the US, a live market blog described the S&P 500 and Dow closing at record highs on Christmas Eve as the so-called “Santa rally” period got underway. ^[17]

For UK investors, this matters because the first London session after the holiday break can sometimes “catch up” to moves that happened while the LSE was shut—particularly in commodities, FX, and US index futures.

What you can do on 25.12.2025 if the UK stock market is closed

Even though the UK stock market is closed today, investors often still take actions that don’t require an open exchange:

You can monitor and prepare—but execution waits for reopening

Most brokers allow you to:

Review holdings and account history
Set alerts and price levels
Queue orders (limit/stop orders), which typically won’t execute until the market reopens

Important nuance: the price you get when trading resumes may gap versus the last close, especially if global markets moved significantly while London was shut.

You can read company announcements and regulatory updates

Corporate news and regulatory filings can still be published on holidays, even when the cash equity market is closed—so it’s worth checking for announcements that could influence the next trading session.

Key takeaway

If you’re searching “is the UK stock market open on 25.12.2025,” the answer is straightforward:

The London Stock Exchange is closed on Christmas Day (25 December 2025). ^[18]
The most recent UK session was the shortened Christmas Eve half-day (24 December 2025), which ended with the FTSE 100 slightly lower and featured major corporate headlines led by BP’s Castrol deal. ^[19]
UK investors are now in a brief pause, watching global moves and digesting late-December deal flow ahead of the next reopening. ^[20]