Closing Bell: Hangover sets in as ASX slides from record highs; resources offer bright spot
Energy and materials only sectors to lift
South32 outperforms production guidance
ASX suffers Liberation Day-sized fall
Today was the largest single-day plunge on the ASX since markets went haywire over Liberation Day tariffs back in April, falling 1.02% by the end of trade.
As is so often the case, the market giveth gains and the market taketh them straight back.
The profit taking hit banks the worst, with the top seven falling between 3.61% and 1.42% each.
Energy pushed back to lift 1.19% and materials added 0.32%, with much of that strength coming from resources stocks in particular.
Taking a look at our outliers for the day, Block Inc (ASX:XYZ) surged 11% in trade after announcing an imminent listing to Wall Street's S&P 500, replacing Hess as the energy company is acquired by Chevron.
It was a bit of a mixed bag for gold stocks, which slid on average.
Pantoro Gold (ASX:PNR) jumped 11% and Dateline Resources (ASX:DTR) 8%, but Brightstar Resources (ASX:BTR) shed 10% and Gorilla Gold Mines (ASX:GG8) 4%.
South32 exceeds expectations
South32 (ASX:S32) is one of the best performing resource stocks on the ASX today, up 4.5% to $3.02 a share after knocking it out of the park in its quarterly production report.
The company's manganese mine produced 1.1Mt despite disruptions to operations from Tropical Cyclone Megan last year, handily beating analyst estimates of 850,000 wmt.
'We delivered another strong quarter of operating performance, exceeding the group's FY25 production guidance, driven by annual production growth of 20% in copper and 6% in aluminium,' South32 chief executive officer Graham Kerr said.
'Australia Manganese successfully resumed export shipments during the quarter, marking a significant recovery from the impacts caused by Tropical Cyclone Megan.'
Production at South32's aluminium assets also improved, particularly at the Mozal smelter in Mozambique where production lifted 13% year-on-year following a period of civil unrest.
S32 returned US$350m to shareholders in the 2025 financial year in the form of dividends and an on-market share buy-back.
ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS
Today's best performing small cap stocks:
Code Name Last % Change Volume Market Cap
AIV Activex Limited 0.021 200% 15073955 $1,508,518
BHM Broken Hill Mines Ltd 0.46 119% 7719357 $22,594,508
IS3 I Synergy Group Ltd 0.0035 75% 8384701 $3,412,600
TR2 Tali Resources Ltd 0.585 58% 1415855 $13,876,850
CR9 Corellares 0.003 50% 1370559 $2,014,540
MOM Moab Minerals Ltd 0.0015 50% 555399 $1,874,666
PGD Peregrine Gold 0.27 46% 3221520 $15,696,832
AUH Austchina Holdings 0.002 33% 250000 $4,538,075
BLZ Blaze Minerals Ltd 0.004 33% 28073114 $5,335,392
CRB Carbine Resources 0.004 33% 737606 $3,000,489
CT1 Constellation Tech 0.002 33% 33333 $2,212,101
SKK Stakk Limited 0.006 33% 5045394 $9,337,859
SPQ Superior Resources 0.006 33% 7941284 $10,669,422
ANO Advance Zinctek Ltd 1.1 33% 49880 $51,996,269
IG6 International Graphite 0.068 26% 416371 $10,452,150
AOK Australian Oil. 0.0025 25% 21000 $2,075,566
PRX Prodigy Gold NL 0.0025 25% 500000 $6,350,111
QXR Qx Resources Limited 0.005 25% 470493 $5,241,315
HAL Halo Technologies 0.031 24% 153570 $3,215,910
RIE Riedel Resources Ltd 0.037 23% 115000 $2,084,354
NYR Nyrada Inc. 0.345 23% 1284051 $59,056,770
OEC Orbital Corp Limited 0.1475 23% 1376584 $19,773,566
JAL Jameson Resources 0.07 23% 100000 $40,419,003
PVW PVW Res Ltd 0.017 21% 2639479 $2,784,667
CRS Caprice Resources 0.058 21% 36534244 $32,016,302
In the news…
ActivEX (ASX:AIV) has drummed up a 310,000-ounce gold resource at the Mt Hogan historical gold mine, the first JORC estimate for the mine, which sits within the Gilberton JV gold project with Gilberton Gold Pty Ltd.
Management is also keen to investigate two other historical gold mining centres at the Josephine and Comstock prospects.
Broken Hill Mines (ASX:BHM) is humming along on its first official day on the ASX, making some big gains while simultaneously kicking off a 4000m drilling program at the Pinnacles Mine with another 3000m of results awaiting assay at the lab.
BHM is looking to expand the Pinnacles resource, which currently sits at 6Mt at 10.9% zinc equivalent. The company owns the operating Rasp mine, located around the site of the Broken Hill discovery on which the world's biggest miner BHP was founded.
BHM isn't the only hot newly listed stock. Tali Resources (ASX:TR2) is also climbing after ringing the bell today, having raised $7.5m in its IPO.
TR2 isn't wasting any time getting the drill rig to work either – the company will drill test four prospects at the West Arunta project in the coming weeks.
Mark Creasy-backed Peregrine Gold (ASX:PGD) has unearthed a large-scale channel iron deposit at the Newman gold project, over a continuous strike of 6.4km. Initial results have averaged about 57% iron, peaking at 61%. It's the first time iron has been identified in the area.
Blaze Minerals (ASX:BLZ) is poised to begin drilling at the Loulombo base metals project in the Republic of Congo, after finalising the project's acquisition from Congo Shining SARL.
BLZ is particularly interested in the Mimpala target, a 1.5km by 500m zone with artisanal workings over 800m of that strike.
ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS
Today's worst performing small cap stocks:
Code Name Last % Change Volume Market Cap
HLX Helix Resources 0.001 -50% 589143 $6,728,387
GGE Grand Gulf Energy 0.002 -33% 2873646 $8,461,275
CCO The Calmer Co Int 0.003 -25% 1105000 $12,045,413
SHP South Harz Potash 0.003 -25% 800000 $5,132,248
CRR Critical Resources 0.004 -20% 453898 $13,850,427
MEM Memphasys Ltd 0.004 -20% 191616 $9,917,991
PIL Peppermint Inv Ltd 0.002 -20% 3050857 $5,752,724
RGL Riversgold 0.004 -20% 5452678 $8,418,563
ROG Red Sky Energy. 0.004 -20% 561454 $27,111,136
VRC Volt Resources Ltd 0.004 -20% 4637281 $23,424,247
REE Rarex Limited 0.022 -19% 6840356 $24,844,429
RDG Res Dev Group Ltd 0.009 -18% 1574238 $32,459,439
NHE Nobleheliumlimited 0.033 -18% 3177284 $23,981,000
CKA Cokal Ltd 0.029 -17% 1683328 $37,763,214
AON Apollo Minerals Ltd 0.005 -17% 2141200 $5,570,741
AUK Aumake Limited 0.0025 -17% 2055000 $9,070,076
MSG Mcs Services Limited 0.005 -17% 122300 $1,188,598
PRM Prominence Energy 0.0025 -17% 208662 $1,459,411
SLZ Sultan Resources Ltd 0.005 -17% 28000 $1,388,819
AJX Alexium Int Group 0.006 -14% 87872 $11,105,001
HHR Hartshead Resources 0.006 -14% 783825 $19,660,775
NAE New Age Exploration 0.003 -14% 5125000 $9,470,690
RKB Rokeby Resources Ltd 0.012 -14% 1492694 $22,888,056
SPX Spenda Limited 0.006 -14% 2788069 $32,306,508
TMS Tennant Minerals Ltd 0.006 -14% 256748 $7,461,233
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Loyal Metals (ASX:LLM) has joined forces with highly regarded Terra Search geologist Dr Simon Beams to unlock the potential of its Highway Reward copper-gold mine in north Queensland.
Nova Minerals (ASX:NVA) is accelerating exploration at the 1.24Moz gold RPM deposit, part of its larger 9.9Moz Estelle gold and critical minerals project in Alaska.
Drilling at Caprice Resources' (ASX:CRS) Island gold project in WA's Murchison region has returned its best intercept to date at the Vadrian's deposit of 11m grading 17.3g/t from 170m.
Broken Hill Mines (ASX:BHM) has debuted on the ASX after a rebrand and consolidation, hitting the ground running with drilling programs at Pinnacles West, targeting silver, lead and zinc.
Brightstar Resources (ASX:BTR) is acquiring Aurumin (ASX:AUN) to create a large-scale, multi-million ounce greater Sandstone project in WA.
Stream sediment sampling on Peregrine Gold's (ASX:PGD) E52/3850 tenement has revealed a large-scale Channel Iron Deposit discovery just 2km from BHP's Western Ridge asset, close to the town of Newman.
RareX (ASX:REE) has raised $2 million through a placement at 2.2c per share to fund exploration across its Mt Mansbridge, Cummins Range and Mrima Hill critical minerals projects.
Trading Halts
At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Broken Hill Mines and Peregrine Gold are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.
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