The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) stumbled today (28 May), but junior magnetite explorer Hawsons Iron (ASX:HIO) witnessed a surge in its share price for the second day in a row.
The S&P/ASX200 edged down 10.7 points, or 0.13%, to close at 8,396.9 points by the closing bell.
The index is relatively unchanged over the past five trading days and sits 2.53% below its 52-week high.
Energy was the top performing sector for the day, adding 2.22% by the end of the session and 2.3% over the past five days.
Five of the 11 sectors retreated, with the materials sector giving up its early gains to close down 0.39% and industrials inching down 0.1%. The financial sector slid 0.7% while utilities rose 0.62%.
Hawsons Iron (ASX:HIO), which is advancing its namesake project in New South Wales, today (28 May) set a new 52-week high of $0.04, on a nearly 74% spike driven by the trade of 30.8 million shares.
This follows the exchange of 15.4 million shares yesterday (27 May), which saw the small cap explorer hit an intra-day peak of $0.029 before closing the session up 43.75% at $0.023.
The surging price prompted a query from the ASX, to which Hawsons responded it is not aware of any information that has not been announced to the market that could explain the recent trading activity.
Hawsons did, however, reference the update released on 22 May on its dry comminution test work program and mineral resource variability study as one possible explanation of the increased investor interest.
The company is now collating engineering and cost data for an updated Prefeasibility Study (PFS) after completing dry comminution testwork.
It is also preparing a project report which will be used as the basis for defining a maiden reserve and delivering an updated PFS.
Hawsons closed up 21.74% on Wednesday.
Gold and iron ore explorer Catalina Resources (ASX:CTN), meanwhile, jumped 50% to $0.003.
Pivotal Metals (ASX:PVT) advanced 33.3% to $0.008 on news it has identified gold targets in the Lorraine Mine within its wholly owned Belleterre-Angliers Greenstone Belt projects in Québec in Canada.
The S&P/ASX200 is Australia’s leading share market index and contains the top 200 ASX-listed companies in terms of market capitalisation, and accounts for about 80% of the country’s equity market. The index is designed to measure the performance of the 200 largest index-eligible stocks listed on the ASX by float-adjusted market capitalisation.
It is recognised as the institutional investable benchmark in the country.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: iStock
