Closing Bell: Hangover sets in as ASX slides from record highs; resources offer bright spot

The ASX has plummeted from last week’s all-time new high, falling more than one per cent. Resources stock gains, however, offered a silver lining.

The market is looking a tad hungover from recent highs this afternoon, as traders lock in well-earned profits. Pic: Getty Images

• ASX slides from record high, down 1.02pc

• 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.

Source: Market Index

Source: Market Index

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.  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.

AnteoTech (ASX:ADO) have entered an agreement with US-based Black Diamond Structures to commercialise an advanced battery product.

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

• Perpetual Resources (ASX:PEC) – pending exploration results
• Strike Energy (ASX:STX) – cap raise
• Carnarvon Energy (ASX:CVN) – pending strategic investment
• Meteoric Resources (ASX:MEI) – cap raise
• Iperionx (ASX:IPX) – cap raise
• Amplia Therapeutics (ASX:ATX) – cap raise
• Elsight (ASX:ELS) – cap raise

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Broken Hill Mines and Peregrine Gold are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.

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

Originally published as Closing Bell: Hangover sets in as ASX slides from record highs; resources offer bright spot