ASX Large Caps: Oil stocks climb on Middle East fallout, gold stocks surge on safe-haven bids

ASX 200 closed higher on Middle East fallout
Oil and gold stocks spiked on concerns the war could spread regionally
US dollar climbed, while bond prices tumbled

The ASX rose +0.2% on Monday, driven mainly by a 3% surge in the Energy sector.

Oil and coal stocks rose broadly following the breakout of Israel’s war with Hamas over the weekend. At the time of writing, the benchmark Brent is trading at US$87.57 a barrel, which is up almost 4% vs Friday’s close.

Saudi Arabia’s energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told CNBC that OPEC+ will “remain cautious” on any moves to expand or cut its oil outputs as the fighting continues.

Gold stocks also climbed as the clash raised the potential for a wider regional conflict, which boosted demand for safe haven bullions. This came as President Biden pledged “rock solid” US support for Israel.

The US dollar has also climbed amid the latest turmoil, with the AUD now skidding to 63.54c.

But with the US markets closed tonight for Columbus Day, Wall Street will have to wait until Tuesday to gauge the reaction of US traders.

Elsewhere, Chinese stocks also fell as traders returned from a week’s long national holiday. Property woes remain a top concern, but Chinese retail sales data from the holiday period have disappointed.

BIG CAP WINNERS

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Code	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
DEG	De Grey Mining	1.23	10.09	10,730,870	2,005,991,341
EVN	Evolution Mining Ltd	3.58	7.04	5,480,563	6,136,194,119
CEN	Contact Energy Ltd	7.73	5.89	3,363	1,852,841,463
CMM	Capricorn Metals	4.34	5.47	643,636	1,545,188,099
PRU	Perseus Mining Ltd	1.61	5.39	3,194,954	2,100,729,598
KAR	Karoon Energy Ltd	2.57	5.33	2,744,796	1,382,308,822
NCM	Newcrest Mining	25.50	5.07	2,210,720	21,702,979,866
RRL	Regis Resources	1.59	4.95	2,236,913	1,144,338,294
GMD	Genesis Minerals	1.40	4.87	3,180,540	1,385,474,345
BGL	Bellevue Gold Ltd	1.44	4.36	1,770,902	1,573,889,560
RED	Red 5 Limited	0.31	4.24	18,743,761	1,021,345,829
NST	Northern Star	11.22	3.84	3,853,940	12,398,540,173
STO	Santos Ltd	7.62	3.61	5,582,723	23,871,131,263
GOR	Gold Road Res Ltd	1.74	3.58	1,312,891	1,808,368,053
RMS	Ramelius Resources	1.64	3.31	8,826,321	1,774,898,172
NAN	Nanosonics Limited	4.15	2.72	255,879	1,222,534,769
PXA	Pexagroup	10.36	2.68	433,667	1,789,467,282

Gold miners De Grey (ASX:DEG), Evolution Mining (ASX:EVN) and Newcrest (ASX:NCM) were the major winners today as war rages.

Energy stocks Contact Energy (ASX:CEN) and Karoon Energy (ASX:KAR) also surged on rising oil prices.

BIG CAP LOSERS

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Code	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
AZS	Azure Minerals	2.06	-14.17	13,930,008	1,047,102,091
MFG	Magellan Fin Grp Ltd	6.73	-6.27	3,174,433	1,302,681,035
PLS	Pilbara Min Ltd	3.77	-3.71	21,866,493	11,766,999,001
QAN	Qantas Airways	4.87	-3.18	7,292,162	8,674,007,040
EBO	Ebos Group Ltd	32.21	-2.54	9,835	6,339,093,612
CCP	Credit Corp Group	17.60	-2.49	113,815	1,228,606,751
360	Life360 Inc.	8.22	-2.32	107,775	1,686,934,113
RDX	Redox Limited	2.20	-2.22	118,409	1,181,433,213
MIN	Mineral Resources.	59.65	-2.13	585,385	11,896,612,787
GNE	Genesis Energy Ltd	2.32	-2.11	13,890	2,524,694,552
DXS	Dexus	7.20	-2.11	1,123,150	7,905,404,558
MCY	Mercury NZ Limited	5.58	-2.11	6,606	7,929,995,262
JDO	Judo Cap Holdings	0.94	-2.08	1,189,014	1,064,928,800

Azure Minerals (ASX:AZS) announced that maiden test work at its giant Andover hard rock lithium project is off to a great start, returning grades of 5.59% Li2O spodumene concentrate with a recovery of 82.37%. Mineralisation is well-suited to industry standard floatation processing, and further test work is expected to improve recoveries.

Now read: Test work returns outstanding 5.59pc lithium concentrate, recovery of 82.37pc at Azure’s Andover

At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Azure Minerals is a Stockhead advertiser, it did not sponsor this article.