Closing Bell: ASX crawls to the finish after touching new intraday high, up just 0.06pc

The ASX finished up 0.06pc after touching a new high, despite falls in uranium, gold and rare earth stocks as US-China trade normalises.

The ASX has crawled to the finish line, trading up just 4.9 points after touching a new intraday high. Pic: Getty Images

• 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.

Source: Market Index

Neither the Banks index nor Gold index were shown much love today, both in the negative alongside the All Tech.

Source: Market Index

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

Cobre Limited (ASX:CBE) – cap raise
Ioneer Ltd (ASX:INR) – cap raise
Southern Palladium Limited (ASX:SPD) – cap raise
Terra Metals Limited (ASX:TM1) – cap raise
Western Gold Resources Limited (ASX:WGR) – material deal
Zenith Minerals Limited (ASX:ZNC) – cap raise

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

St George Mining (ASX:SGQ) has begun its inaugural drilling campaign at the recently acquired Araxá rare earths and niobium play in Brazil.

Asian Battery Metals (ASX:AZ9) has confirmed high-grade copper, nickel, PGEs at its Oval discovery within the Yambat project in Mongolia.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

Originally published as Closing Bell: ASX crawls to the finish after touching new intraday high, up just 0.06pc