Top 10 at 11: ASX roars to life, surging 1pc on resources and real estate strength

The ASX has bounced 1pc in the first hour on strength in resource and banking stocks, supported by an uptick in gold prices.

The ASX has roared back to life in the first hour of Friday trade, setting up for an eighth day in the green. Pic: Getty Images

Morning, and welcome to Stockhead’s Top 10 (at 11… ish), highlighting the movers and shakers on the ASX in early-doors trading.

With the market opening at 10am sharp eastern time, the data is taken at 10:15, once trading kicks off in earnest.

In brief, this is what the markets have been up to this morning.

Nasdaq snaps six-day winning streak

While the S&P500 and Dow lifted overnight, the Nasdaq has ended a six-day winning streak to dip 0.2%, having gained an impressive 6% this week.

All good things must come to an end, they say.

Defensive stocks were the go in the US overnight. Investors rotated out of growth stocks and into Utilities (+2%), Consumer Staples (+2%) and Real Estate (1.84%) as the tariff-truce exuberance wore off.

The markets are betting the Fed will cut interest rates twice this year, or risk dipping into recession, especially as tariff knock-ons cut retail sales.

US factory production also fell for the first time in half a year – the tariff war may be on pause for the next three months, but its effects are still filtering through the economy.

Whispers Walmart may raise prices on its products cut the stock 0.5%, while Amazon fell 2.4%.

UnitedHealth Group is also back in the news. Once again, it’s pretty dire stuff.

The new CEO stepped down suddenly yesterday, and the group is now being criminally investigated for alleged Medicare fraud. No surprise the stock is down more than 10% today.

The Dow gained 0.7% and the S&P500 0.4%.

Over in Europe, markets were pushed higher by defence stocks. Putin refused a meeting with Zelensky in Turkey, dashing hopes for peace once again but boosting shares in Hensoldt, Rheinmetal and Leonardo between 4% and 8.8%.

Military expenditure in Europe (including Russia) surged 17% to US$693 billion in 2024, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Germany bumped their military investment up 28%, and Poland 31% in the same year, a clear indicator of how tense geopolitics has become in the region.

Here’s hoping there’s no more sparks to light that tinder anytime soon.

The aerospace and defence index bumped up 2.3% as the both the FTSE300 and the UK FTSE100 lifted 0.6%.

ASX races out of the gates

The ASX appears to have hit its stride right out of the gate this morning, racing toward an eighth day of gains.

The bourse has surged 1% in the first hour of trading, with the sectors green across the board.

A 1.2% uptick in the gold price kicked the All Ords Gold index into high gear, up more than 3.6% as of about 10:30am AEST.

The ASX 200 Resources is also flying, adding 1.39%, while the Banks index is up 1.29%.

So far, it’s looking like a day for the bulls.

WINNERS

Code	Name	Last	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
ERA	Energy Resources	0.002	100%	4308829	$405,396,241
NPM	Newpeak Metals	0.015	67%	504554	$2,898,646
VPR	Voltgroupltd	0.0015	50%	300282	$10,716,208
M2R	Miramar	0.004	33%	120000	$2,990,470
OVT	Ovanti Limited	0.004	33%	1000000	$8,380,545
ANR	Anatara Ls Ltd	0.0075	25%	5740117	$1,280,302
CAV	Carnavale Resources	0.005	25%	2450000	$16,360,874
DTR	Dateline Resources	0.04	25%	24856964	$88,498,196
EAT	Entertainment	0.005	25%	1000	$5,235,144
RDN	Raiden Resources Ltd	0.005	25%	109474	$13,803,566

In the news…

Anatara Lifesciences’ (ASX:ANR)irritable bowel syndrome phase II trail has achieved a sustained reduction in IBS symptoms compared to placebo, although results did not reach statistical significance. No safety concerns were observed.

The company says an internal analyses points to a trend of pain and distension relief, with more subjective descriptive categories not showing a clear pattern of improvement.

The trial still exceeded the secondary end point of a 20% reduction in symptoms, and the data shows a statistically significant improvement in anxiety scores, while depression scores remained stable.

LAGGARDS

Code	Name	Last	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
DTI	DTI Group Ltd	0.004	-33%	1040828	$2,691,308
EDE	Eden Inv Ltd	0.001	-33%	1110000	$6,164,822
EEL	Enrg Elements Ltd	0.001	-33%	5500000	$4,880,668
TEG	Triangle Energy Ltd	0.002	-33%	55455	$6,267,702
CTN	Catalina Resources	0.002	-20%	278	$6,065,048
WBE	Whitebark Energy	0.005	-17%	43618	$3,454,733
DSK	Dusk Group	0.98	-16%	324317	$72,853,402
PCL	Pancontinental Energ	0.011	-15%	755	$105,775,616
ADN	Andromeda Metals Ltd	0.012	-14%	22694026	$48,002,188
1CG	One Click Group Ltd	0.007	-13%	210000	$9,423,039

Dusk’s (ASX:DSK) 2025 trading update didn’t wow investors. The scent-based retail company is expecting a 50-100-basis-point drop in gross profit, and net cash at the end of the period of between $18m and $20m, down from $20.8m at the end of 2024’s financial year.

That said, DSK expects its total sales to increase from $126.7 million in 2024 to between $137m and $139m this year, with EBIT growing from $6.2m to between $7m and $8m.

The company reckons its new core product ranges and seasonal products will encourage new customers to buy-in, with CEO and MD Vlad Yakubson saying the group is “in a strong financial position and our inventory remains clean and well balanced”.

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

Originally published as Top 10 at 11: ASX roars to life, surging 1pc on resources and real estate strength