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Greetings and welcome to HotCopper’s The ASX Today for Wednesday, Week 15, I’m Isaac McIntyre, and it seems every time I get to see out our Market Close coverage, there’s some kind of green rocket firing through the day — not that I’m really complaing, of course, because it’s certainly fun to talk about.
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Today’s rocket may be one of the biggest of the lot, too. Australian shares have enjoyed their best day in the last twelve months, up +2.7% mid-arvo. We don’t have to go scrabbling around to find out why, either: The States and Iran this morning (Australian time) agreed to a two-week ceasefire to talk peace.
Que oil prices collapsing, with Brent crude down -13.3% to US$94.73, and gold rumbling to life, +2% stronger and back over $4,800 an ounce today.
Nothing’s completely finished, but between markets seemingly beginning to numb to the whole Middle Eastern conflict early in WK15 and then this ‘Peace Boom,’ we could be in for a mighty bullish two weeks. (Forget, if you will, Trump was declaring he’d happily destroy a “whole civilisation” just 24 hours ago.)
The rip-roaring Wednesday trade left eight of the bourse’s eleven sectors stronger, with Energy, Utilities, and Staples the only major ASX losers. Energy, especially, was left totally battered and bruised, with -7.8% sapped intraday.
Looking down at stock level, Aussie gold miners like Bellevue Gold (ASX:BGL) and Greatland Resources (ASX:GGP) enjoyed big booms of up to +13%, while Newmont (ASX:NEM) and Regis Resources (ASX:REG) weren’t far behind.
Not so happy a day for energy leaders, including Woodside Energy (ASX:WDS), which gave back as much as -12% through the day. Ampol (ASX:ALD) and Viva Energy (ASX:VTA) were hurting, too, while smallcap Karoon Energy (ASX:KAR) dropped -12.4%. It wasn’t pretty for Santos (ASX:STO) today either, though it may have been spared a little after announcing a breakthrough in its State-side Alaskan operations with the FY26 completion of the Quokka-1 appraisal well on the North Slope.
DroneShield (ASX:DRO) was battered, losing over 65cps after exec Oleg Vornik resigned. The company said chairman Peter James will leave next month, too.
And finally, as I like to do, we’ll highlight the top gainer on the ADVFN.com boards. Today, it’s Resolution Minerals (ASX:RML), which exploded +60%. The pump came after Aussie explorer Resolution landed White House “Fast-41” Permitting Transparency status for its flagship Antimony Ridge project.
That’s the ASX Today for Wednesday, I’m Isaac McIntyre, see you in the morning.
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