ASX Market Close: ASX200 finishes close to open as profit takers descend

Good Afternoon and welcome to HotCopper Market Close for Thursday 5th of June 2025, I’m Jon Davidson. 

The ASX200 just nearly skimmed its intraday all time high peaking at around 8,566 points today, which then triggered a sell off – something I pondered aloud yesterday afternoon. The market closed not far off where it opened in the 8,530points range on Thursday. 

As for sectors, tech reared its volatile head as the top gainer throughout the day as health care and utilities led the laggards. 

Let’s turn to companies in the green. 

IperionX, a US-based Titanium specialist, jumped close to 30% and stood as the day’s top gainer as the company won a contract from the US defence department to research and supply titanium parts for defence applications with the company first turning attention to titanium screws. It effectively has $150M Australian to draw down from, thus the gains. 

Elsewhere Mineral Resources popped more than 10% on Thursday as the often volatile stock, a favourite with day traders, seemed to rebound on a whim driven by renewed sentiment for materials stocks broadly. MinRes is volatile at the best of times, to say the least, the company issued no news, and iron ore prices didn’t really shift either. 

Finally, Clarity Pharmaceuticals joined the top gainers as its latest cancer trial results were digested by the market, and there was no acid reflux to talk of. At least not yet.

As for companies in the red, 

IDP Education fell into the red for a second day this week as the market continues to digest a poor trading update it released earlier this week which severely tanked prices. While we saw some green on Wednesday, it looks like profit taker Thursday hit the company. 

In financials, Tyro Payments took a dip over 10% as its CEO and Managing Director shook investors by quitting out of the blue. Jon Davey is stepping down to move into private equity, that coupled with weak GDP this week is likely creating a cocktail of caution for investors. 

Finally, spare a thought for once gargantuan toy brand Toys R Us. The company’s shares were suspended today as the stock brought in administrators, which isn’t too surprising when one considers the macroeconomic juncture of commercial real estate, a cost of living crisis, and of course, the rise of online shopping. 

That’s Market Close for Thursday, I’m Jon Davidson, have a great night and we’ll see you tomorrow for HotCopper Highlights. 

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