Gold producers Catalyst Metals (ASX:CYL) and West African Resources (ASX:WAF) are top performing stocks on the S&P/ASX 200 index, which rose for the first time in three days by 0.19% to 8,599.80 points.
Catalyst increased 4.3% to $6.15 while West African jumped 5% to $2.92 within the first hour of the Australian Securities Exchange opening for trade.
The growth follows three prior days (March 12, March 13 and March 16) of 0.37%, 0.31% and 1.26% declines to 8,602.50, 8,633.70 and 8,584.90 points respectively.
Mining giant BHP (ASX:BHP) rose 1.6% to $49.98 a share while Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) increased 2.9% to $159.34 per unit.
“Over the last five days the index has lost 1.07% and 9.49% 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
