Closing Bell: ASX crawls to the finish after touching new intraday high, up just 0.06pc
ASX sets new intraday high at 8639 points before sliding to 8598
Normalising US-China relations undercut gold, rare earth and uranium stocks
Despite all that, ASX 200 Resources index gains 0.67pc
The ASX had a very strong start to the day, rocketing up almost 0.5% in the first hour of trade.
Unfortunately, it was pretty much all downhill from there.
While the Aussie market managed to keep momentum just long enough to stay in positive territory, the bourse is up just 4.9 points or 0.06%.
That puts us 0.54% off the 52-week average high, a range we've been hovering around for about a week now.
Looking at the sectors, real estate, energy and materials made the biggest moves. Info tech and healthcare both dragged.
Neither the Banks index nor Gold index were shown much love today, both in the negative alongside the All Tech.
The ASX 200 Resources index was more of a bright spot, lifting 0.67% despite some geopolitical headwinds for several commodities.
US-China trade deal moves toward final approval
While details are thin, as of about midday AEST Chinese and US officials have agreed to a trade war truce.
Reuters reports the two countries have agreed on a framework to remove export restrictions and boost trade volumes after a torrid four-month saga of retaliatory tariffs and general mudslinging.
"We have reached a framework to implement the Geneva consensus and the call between the two presidents," US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said.
"The idea is we're going to go back and speak to President Trump and make sure he approves it. They're going to go back and speak to President Xi and make sure he approves it, and if that is approved, we will then implement the framework."
While good news for the general health of the global economy, it's taken the wind out of ASX resource stock sails, particularly gold, rare earths and uranium miners and explorers.
Many were angling to become the new strategic sources of energy and critical minerals outside of China, but that's looking less necessary now.
ASX resources stocks in the dumps
Taking a look at our rare earths stocks, Lynas Rare Earths (ASX:LYC) has slumped more than 7%, joined by several of its small cap cousins.
Arafura (ASX:ARU) has also shed 7%, while Northern Minerals (ASX:NTU) is down 5.8%, Dateline Resources (ASX:DTR) 20% and Eclipse Metals (ASX:EPM) 12%.
Gold stocks are faring a little better. Mid cap Perseus Mining (ASX:PRU) has slipped 5% after releasing a five year production outlook. Fellow midcap Ramelius Resources (ASX:RMS) is down just 1.9%.
On the other hand, some small cap gold stocks are struggling. Iceni Gold (ASX:ICL) has shed 16%, Solstice Minerals (ASX:SLS) 7% and Gorilla Gold Mines (ASX:GG8) 11%.
Uranium stocks are taking a little less heat, ironically. Paladin Energy (ASX:PDN) is down 3.2%, Boss Energy (ASX:BOE) 2% and Deep Yellow (ASX:DYL) 2.7%.
Bannerman Energy (ASX:BMN) has slumped 9.5%, however, and Lotus Resources (ASX:LOT) has slipped 7%.
Despite all that the materials sector is very much in the green today, up 0.63%, with plenty of resource companies making strong gains.
Look no further than our Small Cap Leaders table for the day for examples…
ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS
Today's best performing small cap stocks:
Security Name Last % Change Volume Market Cap
RAN Range International 0.0015 50% 17142 $939,290
PLY Playside Studios 0.21 45% 2923235 $59,337,210
KGD Kula Gold Limited 0.01 43% 17524286 $6,448,776
REZ Resourc & En Grp Ltd 0.018 38% 898234 $8,731,309
SLA Solara Minerals 0.195 26% 694247 $8,987,648
AAU Antilles Gold Ltd 0.005 25% 605718 $9,245,471
CTN Catalina Resources 0.005 25% 27442520 $9,704,076
MEM Memphasys Ltd 0.005 25% 1850532 $7,934,392
OVT Ovanti Limited 0.0025 25% 1300174 $5,587,030
ROG Red Sky Energy. 0.005 25% 8341400 $21,688,909
OLY Olympio Metals Ltd 0.036 24% 25625 $2,553,952
HFR Highfield Res Ltd 0.155 24% 439824 $59,259,630
DAL Dalaroometalsltd 0.042 24% 2253388 $8,464,365
ATG Articore Group Ltd 0.225 22% 155114 $52,676,230
ADG Adelong Gold Limited 0.006 20% 802466 $10,343,383
ALY Alchemy Resource Ltd 0.006 20% 200000 $5,890,381
BLZ Blaze Minerals Ltd 0.003 20% 16939864 $3,917,370
GLL Galilee Energy Ltd 0.006 20% 200000 $3,535,964
ICG Inca Minerals Ltd 0.006 20% 3043331 $7,881,950
RDN Raiden Resources Ltd 0.006 20% 10880428 $17,254,457
TON Triton Min Ltd 0.006 20% 200000 $7,841,944
NSB Neuroscientific 0.067 20% 872198 $8,097,873
HTM High-Tech Metals Ltd 0.23 18% 137280 $10,763,210
SIO Simonds Grp Ltd 0.165 18% 69553 $50,386,903
CCM Cadoux Limited 0.035 17% 601741 $11,127,528
Making news…
Blaze Minerals (ASX:BLZ) is turning heads after hitting gallium and rubidium mineralisation at its Ntungamo project in Uganda.
While the mineralisation isn't particularly high grade in this first pass of drilling, the price of gallium has surged 23% since January last year, marking the critical mineral as a lucrative exploration target.
BLZ's drilling also encountered scandium mineralisation, but no neodymium or praseodymium of any economic significance.
Olympio Metals (ASX:OLY) has locked in a 38-hole drilling program at the Bousquet gold project after nabbing the necessary drilling approvals.
The company is particularly interested in investigating the Paquin gold prospect, which has already offered up a promising drill result of 9m at 16.96 g/t gold. The project sits on the incredibly fertile Cadillac Break formation, home to gold resources exceeding 110Moz gold.
ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS
Today's worst performing small cap stocks:
Security Name Last % Change Volume Market Cap
DGR DGR Global Ltd 0.003 -40% 6327345 $5,218,480
FHS Freehill Mining Ltd. 0.005 -38% 5297011 $25,868,222
BMO Bastion Minerals 0.002 -33% 66886718 $2,710,883
PAB Patrys Limited 0.001 -33% 43052603 $3,086,171
SFG Seafarms Group Ltd 0.001 -33% 1880561 $7,254,899
G50 G50Corp Ltd 0.14 -26% 2354159 $30,513,555
RDS Redstone Resources 0.003 -25% 971324 $4,137,069
SP8 Streamplay Studio 0.007 -22% 2727401 $11,532,281
VPR Voltgroupltd 0.145 -22% 219023 $19,825,007
GAS State GAS Limited 0.019 -21% 631079 $9,422,421
W2V Way2Vatltd 0.006 -20% 600000 $10,596,436
CZN Corazon Ltd 0.002 -20% 550949 $2,961,431
MGU Magnum Mining & Exp 0.004 -20% 10853500 $5,608,254
MRD Mount Ridley Mines 0.002 -20% 292846 $1,946,223
SKK Stakk Limited 0.004 -20% 52435 $10,375,398
TYX Tyranna Res Ltd 0.004 -20% 1119997 $16,442,127
VRC Volt Resources Ltd 0.004 -20% 2771856 $23,423,890
FCT Firstwave Cloud Tech 0.013 -19% 911424 $27,416,299
RAS Ragusa Minerals Ltd 0.013 -19% 351938 $2,281,581
CKA Cokal Ltd 0.03 -17% 1590245 $38,842,163
ICE Icetana Limited 0.025 -17% 1569979 $13,144,280
ANR Anatara Ls Ltd 0.005 -17% 290750 $1,280,302
GGE Grand Gulf Energy 0.0025 -17% 1516666 $8,461,275
LIT Livium Ltd 0.01 -17% 13819883 $20,286,085
OLH Oldfields Holdings 0.02 -17% 347666 $5,113,419
G50 Corp's (ASX:G50) has also released a gallium-based announcement, although the market wasn't quite as impressed with the results as in BLZ's case.
While G50's mineralogy study has confirmed the presence of gallium in three types of mineral samples at its Golconda gold-silver-zinc project, the content is fairly low, represented in just 38% of the host rock.
The mineral type with the best gallium content of 55 parts per million accounts for just 7% of the rock content, meaning G50 will need to extract and concentrate the critical mineral before it can be sold on to off takers.
Freehill Mining (ASX:FHS) has taken another step to expand its aggregate materials business in Chile, selecting a third site in the La Serena region.
Investors seem unimpressed with the company's cash generating efforts, which are focused on providing construction materials to local customers to fund development of the Yerbas Buenas magnetite mine.
A new resource estimate for the ICE copper-gold project wasn't enough to wow Bastion Minerals (ASX:BMO) shareholders.
The new JORC estimate confirmed the volume of the historical estimate at 5.76Mt at 1.09% copper. Perhaps investors were hoping for a little more.
Management says they've got plenty of reason to hope, as most exploration on the project has been concentrated around the ICE deposit. BMO reckons there's potential for more in 11 targets, which have had no follow up investigation as yet.
TRADING HALTS
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
St George Mining (ASX:SGQ) Araxá rare earths and niobium play in Brazil.
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