Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST) and Iperionx (ASX:IPX) share prices continue to slide on the S&P/ASX 200 index which dropped for the third day in a row by 0.37% to 8,584.90 points within the first hour of the Australian Securities Exchange opening for trade.
The decline follows two prior days (March 12 and March 13) of 0.31% and 1.26% declines to 8,602.50 and 8,633.70 points respectively.
Northern Star is named as a “bottom performing stock” for the second trading day in a row, decreasing 5% to $20.72 each share. On March 13, the ASX listed multinational gold producer fell 18.7% to $21.75 per unit.
The downward movement happened after the company reported “weaker-than-planned” milling performance at Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines in Kalgoorlie-Boulder. It also experienced “reduced mining productivity” across several operating areas, particularly at the Jundee Underground Gold Mine (47km northeast of Wiluna).
Iperionx is also a “bottom performing stock” for the second trading day in a row, declining 12.3% to $4.61 a share. The titanium and critical minerals company dropped 10.8% to $6.12 per share on March 13.
Copper, zinc, lead, and silver multinational Newmont (ASX:NEM) declined 4.3% to $154.66 per share. Fellow copper, zinc, lead, silver and aluminium producer South32 (ASX:S32) also lost 3.1% to $4.27 a share.
“Over the last five days, the index is virtually unchanged, but is down 1.48% for the last year to date,” 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
