The best and worst-performing stocks of ’23 financial year feature lithium, gold and nickel companies

Lithium was a blessing for mining stocks in the 2023 financial year as share prices grew, but not all players struck it rich.

A dump truck drives along an access ramp to a mine floor at the Bald Hill lithium mine site. Picture: Bloomberg

West Australian miners were among the best performing ASX companies in the 2023 financial year, fuelled by the global thirst for resources.

Lithium’s rise triggered a spate of takeovers, sky-high valuations, newly minted billionaires and massive share price leaps.

Liontown Resources won bragging rights as the best performer on the ASX 200, racking up a gain of 168.25 per cent as it attracted takeover bids and hot money chasing lithium dreams.

Lithium, gold and nickel were the best sectors to invest in for the past year, judging by the top 10 ASX performers. While a few technology stocks also managed to post impressive gains the mining and resources sectors deli­vered the best returns with six out of the top 10 performers involved in that industry.

Unsurprisingly the state with the biggest mineral wealth produced most of the highest risers, with six WA companies or resources plays with projects in that state in the top 10.

The worst performers for the financial year were a sprinkling of old-fashioned industrials and former high flyers that have lost their star status.

While igniting the share price of some miners, lithium was a curse for Lake Resources.

The funds manager once led by “rock star investor” Hamish Douglass, Magellan Financial, was down 26.55 per cent. Domino’s Pizza’s boast of being a hot tech stock that sold pizza on the side has been forgotten. Cromwell Property was caught up in the mass exodus from property plays as interest rates rose though fiscal 2023 and its shares ended the year down 29.14 per cent.

Casino operators were on the nose given the corruption scandals and inquiries that swamped both major players. With Crown now removed from the market following its takeover, Star Entertainment faced investor distaste – its shares were down 55.05 per cent as the second worst performer for the year.

Liontown Resources topped the charts for the last financial year among the 200 biggest ­companies on the ASX to post the highest gain, ending the year to June 30 with an impressive rise of almost 170 per cent.

The combination of a takeover bid and rising commodity prices supercharged its share price.

Liontown, a $6.2bn emerging lithium producer that has the highly prized Kathleen Valley and Buldania lithium projects in its portfolio, had help in its share price surge this year from a $5.5bn takeover bid by Albemarle Corporation as well as insatiable international demand for lithium as the world switches to renewable energy.

Core Lithium’s extraction operations.

Nickel explorer Chalice Mining also had the whiff of M&A activity around it, partly helped by news Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting had built up a 4.6 per cent stake in it in early 2023.

Speculation that Andrew Forrest was also trying to get his hands on some meaningfully sized parcels of Chalice added more heat to the stock, which ended fiscal 2023 up 65.61 per cent.

Lithium can, however, be a blessing and a curse.

Lake Resources found this out the hard way when in June it announced that its flagship lithium project located in Argentina’s Catamarca Province would be delayed by as much as six years and cost more than expected, sending its shares into a tailspin.

That was enough to see it set apart from of other lithium plays to be the worst performer with its shares down 61.78 per cent for the year. There also have been growing market doubts about its lithium extraction method, while short sellers have been active in the stock.

Beyond the miners, Domino’s Pizza shares traded above $160 a share in late 2021 but by the start of the 2023 financial year the stock was close to $50 as profit downgrades, spluttering profitability and operational missteps belted the company – and investor confidence. But heading towards Christmas, Domino’s Pizza had rebuilt its share price and was posting upward momentum.

That all came crashing down in reporting season in February when Domino’s unveiled disappointed results and later a profit warning put n its portfolio downward pressure on it.

Domino’s ended the financial year down 31.72 per cent.