Two precious metals and critical minerals companies are the biggest losers in the S&P/ASX 200 index which dropped for the second day in a row by 0.31% to 8,602.50 points within the first hour of the Australian Securities Exchange opening for trade.
The decline follows a previous 1.26% decrease to 8,633.70 points on 12 March.
ASX ranked multinational gold producer Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST) as a “bottom performing stock” today, decreasing 19.9% to $22.32 per share before recovering 3.5% to $23.12 per unit.
The company’s latest operational update confirmed “weaker-than-planned” milling performance at Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines in Kalgoorlie-Boulder. It also flagged “reduced mining productivity” across several operating areas, particularly at the Jundee Underground Gold Mine, 47km northeast of Wiluna.
Titanium and critical minerals company Iperionx (ASX:IPX) declined 10.8% to $6.12 per share. Mining giant BHP (ASX:BHP) dropped 2.5% to $49.70 while fellow resources multinational Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) bucked the downward trend and increased 1.8% to $155.95.
“Over the last five days the index has lost 2.81%, and 11.01% over the last 52 weeks,” the ASX markets website says.
As Mining.com.au previously reported, the index reported a third year of “positive returns” during 2025 despite “some concerns about the state of the world”.
“The big option trades using longer dated contracts we found in January appear to be looking for continuation of this upward trend in 2026,” the ASX says.
Analysts say the share price declines follow both the US and Israeli government’s military strikes against Iran. ATFX global chief market strategist Nick Twidale warns Australia could still see a “real downturn” if the US-Israel-Iran conflict continues for “too long”.
Write to Richard Szabo at Mining.com.au
Images: Marcus Reubenstein via Unsplash
