ASX August Winners: The 50 best stocks in a volatile month for markets

S&P/ASX 200 recovers from heavy volatility early in the month to finish up 0.47% in August
S&P Dow Jones Indices said mid-caps led the gains putting them ahead of large and small caps YTD
Larvotto Resources rose on the back of China deciding to restrict exports of highly sought-after antimony

While Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 had its best month of the year in July, finishing up 4% to a new record high at 8,092, August was bit rougher. Traditionally, the last month of the northern summer is always a bit of a softer month for markets due to lower trading volumes as many investors and traders take vacations, reducing liquidity and momentum.

Analysts say earnings season also winds down in August, providing fewer catalysts for stock movements, while portfolio adjustments for the final months of the year can also contribute to subdued market activity.

Fears of a US recession in early August had investors all on edge, though and led to heavy falls globally including Australia.

On top of this Japan’s benchmark stock index, the Nikkei 225, suffered its biggest decline for nearly four decades. The Nikkei sunk by 12% on Monday, August 5 in its biggest single-day fall since the Black Monday crash of 1987 with flow-on effects globally.

Analysts noted that another factor leading to the decline in markets was carry trades, where investors borrow money from countries with low interest rates and weaker currencies to invest in higher-yielding assets elsewhere.

Japan was a popular country for carry trades because the Bank of Japan (BoJ) had a long-standing monetary policy of extremely low interest rates.

However, Japan’s central bank recently raised interest rates from nearly zero to 0.25% on July 31 and as the World Economic Forum explained, the small shift had “big implications for carry trades”.

The yen strengthened and interest rates rose as investors started selling stocks to repay these loans, contributing to the market downturn.

The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) – often referred to as Wall Street’s fear gauge – jumped by 65% to 38.57 on August 5, which was the VIX’s highest closing level since October 2020.

Experts warned investors should hold their nerve and prepare for more volatility.

All said, Australia equities held up better than their global peers in August, “eking out small gains for the month”, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI).

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 recovered quickly from a 6% drop earlier in the month and finished 0.3% shy of its recent record high.

Australian mid-cap companies led the market with a 2% gain in the S&P/ASX MidCap 50, which put them ahead of large caps as well as small caps YTD.

Tech leads gains, up 38% YTD

S&P noted sector returns were highly dispersed with five of the 11 sectors falling for August. The S&P/ASX 200 Information Technology soared 8% while Materials and Energy completed a third consecutive month in the red.

Among factor/thematic indices, the S&P/ASX 300 Net Zero 2050 Paris-Aligned ESG and the S&P/ASX 300 Shareholder Yield continued to outperform, extending their YTD excess returns versus the S&P/ASX 300 to 9% and 8%, respectively.

S&P said equity volatility stabilised quickly from an earlier spike. The S&P/ASX 200 VIX closed at 10.94, below its trailing one-year average.

Here were the 50 best performing ASX stocks for August

Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort.

CODE	COMPANY	LAST SHARE PRICE	AUGUST RETURN %	MARKET CAP
HCT	Holista CollTech Ltd	0.026	271%	$7,248,802
MHI	Merchant House	0.135	238%	$12,725,977
TGH	Terragen	0.044	214%	$16,239,570
LRV	Larvotto Resources	0.375	213%	$115,658,964
LTP	LTR Pharma Limited	1.88	141%	$159,403,414
KPO	Kalina Power Limited	0.007	133%	$17,404,758
AQC	Auspac Coal	0.22	129%	$117,436,203
FXG	Felix Gold Limited	0.089	117%	$22,742,244
MTM	MTM Critical Metals	0.059	111%	$16,585,304
CNJ	Conico Ltd	0.002	100%	$4,403,055
LSR	Lodestar Minerals	0.002	100%	$5,201,560
NME	Nex Metals Explorat	0.048	100%	$13,069,342
RIL	Redivium Limited	0.004	100%	$10,923,419
AME	Alto Metals Limited	0.065	97%	$46,899,006
IMI	Infinity Mining	0.019	90%	$2,256,314
M2R	Miramar	0.013	86%	$5,132,134
BXN	Bioxyne Ltd	0.011	83%	$22,513,099
MHK	Metalhawk	0.091	82%	$9,160,970
NAG	Nagambie Resources	0.021	75%	$16,729,349
CRR	Critical Resources	0.012	71%	$21,364,203
SPA	Spacetalk Ltd	0.029	71%	$13,763,192
AAU	Antilles Gold Ltd	0.005	67%	$7,307,139
EXL	Elixinol Wellness	0.005	67%	$6,605,912
NIM	Nimy Resources	0.085	67%	$14,157,907
EXR	Elixir Energy Ltd	0.165	65%	$197,419,013
CBL	Control Bionics	0.09	64%	$18,835,810
RIM	Rimfire Pacific	0.078	63%	$179,028,284
HCL	Highcom Ltd	0.205	58%	$21,049,948
EWC	Energy World Corp	0.014	56%	$43,104,897
GT1	Green Technology	0.095	53%	$30,566,449
ATP	Atlas Pearls Ltd	0.145	53%	$63,331,159
HUM	Humm Group Limited	0.685	52%	$336,589,371
WGR	Western Gold Resources	0.035	52%	$5,962,427
A8G	Australasian Metals	0.13	51%	$6,775,664
CHR	Charger Metals	0.089	51%	$6,890,402
AEV	Avenira Limited	0.0135	50%	$36,504,460
AOA	Ausmon Resorces	0.003	50%	$2,117,999
HLX	Helix Resources	0.0045	50%	$14,688,872
ICU	Investor Centre Ltd	0.006	50%	$1,827,068
MTB	Mount Burgess Mining	0.0015	50%	$1,298,147
SHO	Sportshero Ltd	0.006	50%	$3,706,997
MCM	Mc Mining Ltd	0.21	50%	$86,942,803
APX	Appen Limited	1	49%	$223,001,643
BEZ	Besra Gold	0.097	49%	$40,555,788
EZZ	EZZ Life Science	2.66	49%	$118,139,112
CUS	Copper Search	0.083	48%	$9,427,589
LSA	Lachlan Star Ltd	0.105	48%	$21,795,185
GW1	Greenwing Resources	0.059	48%	$13,084,733
PYC	PYC Therapeutics	0.14	47%	$653,251,677
PNR	Pantoro Limited	0.125	47%	$806,753,814

Larvotto Resources (ASX:LRV) rose 213% in August. As Stockhead’s Cameron Drummond reported, LRV was on tear on the back of China deciding to restrict exports of highly sought-after antimony – of which it currently dominates production.

A 5250m RC drilling program is also about to kick off at the Clarks Gully deposit at the explorer’s Hillgrove gold-antimony project in NSW to increase confidence in the current 266,000t antimony (Sb) and 2g/t gold (10.6g/t AuEq) resource.

LTR Pharma (ASX:LTP) rose in a key milestone in the rollout of its nasal spray treatment for erectile dysfunction (ED) with the first select group of patients receiving Spontan under the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) Authorised Prescriber Scheme (APS).

LTP says the milestone marks a significant step forward in the market introduction strategy with APS providing faster patient access to Spontan.

Clean-energy-focused company Kalina Power (ASX:KPO) rose 133% in August. The company had a couple of announcements during the month including that it had signed an MOU with a major US data centre developer to build AI-focused data centres in Alberta, Canada using natural gas with carbon capture.

Kalina aims to capitalise on Alberta’s data centre boom and meet the growing electricity demand. The company says its low-CO2 power projects are well-suited to meet this demand.

MTM Critical Metals (ASX:MTM) rose 11% during August also on the back of several key announcements including the appointment of new CEO Michael Walshe, who the company described as being “a highly credentialled mineral processing executive”.

MTM also made a significant discovery following the recovery of gallium from semiconductor and LED scrap via Flash Joule Heating (FJH) technology. The company said the lab-scale breakthrough places MTM at the forefront of efforts to resolve the critical supply chain challenges surrounding gallium — a metal that is indispensable to high-tech and defence industries.

Here were the 50 worst performing ASX stocks for August

Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort.

CODE	COMPANY	LAST SHARE PRICE	AUGUST RETURN %	MARKET CAP
ERA	Energy Resources	0.005	-75%	$110,741,496
BCB	Bowen Coal Limited	0.014	-63%	$39,888,508
TEG	Triangle Energy Ltd	0.0055	-61%	$10,400,670
CDE	Codeifai Limited	0.001	-60%	$3,961,942
ADN	Andromeda Metals Ltd	0.009	-57%	$30,542,438
FGH	Foresta Group	0.004	-56%	$9,421,516
ME1	Melodiol Global Health	0.001	-50%	$1,125,828
RNE	Renu Energy Ltd	0.0025	-50%	$1,815,335
8VI	8Vi Holdings Limited	0.068	-50%	$2,849,977
MOZ	Mosaic Brands Ltd	0.036	-49%	$6,426,232
FRS	Forrestania Resources	0.015	-48%	$2,426,786
CMO	Cosmo Metals	0.028	-47%	$3,667,800
FGL	Frugl Group Limited	0.022	-46%	$2,307,990
AKG	Academies Aus Grp	0.092	-46%	$12,200,531
DGR	DGR Global Ltd	0.012	-45%	$12,524,322
RCR	Rincon	0.028	-45%	$8,191,748
OPL	Opyl Limited	0.016	-45%	$2,731,434
GHY	Gold Hydrogen	0.635	-44%	$48,681,020
FHE	Frontier Energy Ltd	0.245	-44%	$109,460,345
GAS	State GAS Limited	0.045	-43%	$16,253,868
AS2	Askari Metals	0.02	-43%	$1,961,403
EOF	Ecofibre Limited	0.024	-41%	$9,092,974
AKN	Auking Mining Ltd	0.01	-41%	$3,186,870
IXR	Ionic Rare Earths	0.006	-40%	$29,218,576
RFA	Rare Foods Australia	0.015	-40%	$4,079,749
WNR	Wingara Ag Ltd	0.006	-40%	$1,053,255
ACW	Actinogen Medical	0.045	-39%	$122,030,028
ATV	Activeportgroupltd	0.042	-39%	$14,844,544
RPG	Raptis Group Limited	0.008	-38%	$507,891
DME	Dome Gold Mines Ltd	0.105	-38%	$38,997,919
HOR	Horseshoe Metals Ltd	0.005	-38%	$3,316,408
SVL	Silver Mines Limited	0.094	-37%	$141,755,408
FEX	Fenix Resources Ltd	0.275	-37%	$198,169,928
TM1	Terra Metals Limited	0.038	-37%	$15,039,590
LOM	Lucapa Diamond Ltd	0.045	-37%	$14,215,978
BSN	Basin Energy	0.033	-37%	$2,743,948
C1X	Cosmo Exploration	0.028	-36%	$2,159,183
CLU	Cluey Ltd	0.028	-36%	$9,879,065
CXU	Cauldron Energy Ltd	0.016	-36%	$19,624,490
5EA	5E Advanced	0.094	-35%	$31,216,019
AAP	Australian Agri Ltd	0.024	-35%	$8,846,489
TOE	Toro Energy Limited	0.215	-35%	$25,860,597
CAZ	Cazaly Resources	0.015	-35%	$6,919,545
JLG	Johns Lyng Group	3.75	-35%	$1,075,085,436
AD8	Audinate Group Ltd	9.45	-34%	$786,691,500
BCT	Bluechiip Limited	0.004	-33%	$4,728,158
CTN	Catalina Resources	0.002	-33%	$2,476,974
DMG	Dragon Mountain Gold	0.004	-33%	$1,578,687
ECT	Env Clean Tech	0.002	-33%	$7,929,526
IBG	Ironbark Zinc Ltd	0.002	-33%	$3,667,296