Two days of recovery in the S&P/ASX 200 index is over with a 1.26% drop to 8,633.70 points within the first hour of the Australian Securities Exchange opening for trade. The loss follows 1.34% and 0.45% jumps in the previous two days respectively (10 and 11 March).
ASX ranked critical minerals company IperionX (ASX:IPX) as a “bottom performing stock” today, decreasing 10.43% to $6.39 per share before dropping a further 2.2% to $6.25 per unit.
Copper, zinc, lead, and silver multinational Newmont (ASX:NEM) declined 2.5% to $161.69 per share. Fellow copper, zinc, lead, silver and aluminium producer South32 (ASX:S32) and gold exploration company Torque Metals (ASX:TOR) remained flat at $4.35 and $0.49 per share respectively.
“The index has lost 3.43% for the last five days but is virtually unchanged over 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
