Top 10 at 11: ASX goes for a dip; mining stocks target critical minerals

Morning, and welcome to Stockhead’s Top 10 (at 11… ish), highlighting the movers and shakers on the ASX in early-doors trading.

With the market opening at 10am sharp eastern time, the data is taken at 10.15am in the east, once trading kicks off in earnest.

In brief, this is what the market has been up to this morning.

Profit taking sets the tone

The market is in an odd kind of shape this morning, down 0.28% in the first hour with 8 of 11 sectors higher.

After setting two new record closing highs this week, it’s not terribly surprising to see traders lock in gains by selling down, taking profits in financial and utilities stocks in particular.

The ASX 200 Utilities index is up 6.2% for the year so far, while the financials sector has added 8% over the same period.

Oil dipped again overnight, sliding to US$66.15 a barrel of Brent. Gold futures also slid, down 0.2% to US3399 an ounce with spot gold trading at US$3344 an ounce this morning.

Critical minerals are taking the spotlight in early trade, with three of our four small cap winners for the morning looking to unlock their strategic value.

SMALL CAP WINNERS

In the news…

OD6 Metals (ASX:OD6) is celebrating the production of a mixed rare earth carbonate product of about 56% total rare earth oxides and a mixed rare earth hydroxide product of 59% TREP using feedstock from the Splinter Rock project.

Management says the results are a major milestone for the project, demonstrating a simplified and scalable heap leach flow sheet process is suitable for producing high-quality, low-impurity rare earth products.

I Synergy (ASX:IS3) has inked an MoU with Treasure Global Inc to purchase AI-based GPUs for a total contract value of $300k. IS3 will pay six monthly instalments to procure high-performance computing hardware and software capable of supporting advanced artificial intelligence applications.

Altitude Minerals (ASX:ATT) has identified a zone of zircon and titanium mineralisation with surface sampling at the Nilpinna Eromanga Basin heavy mineral sands project.

ATT is gearing up to drill the area in September, targeting areas that graded up to 30% zircon, 40% ilmenite (titanium dioxide), 10% leucoxene (fine-grained titanium dioxide) and 5% rutile (naturally occurring titanium).

Kingsland Minerals (ASX:KNG) is a step closer to unlocking the gallium mineralisation at the Leliyn graphite project after the CSIRO’s testing demonstrated strong potential for an economical byproduct.

While graphite is KNG’s main focus at Leilyn, gallium grades up to 135 parts per million in the host rock offer a lucrative opportunity. As a critical mineral, gallium is in high demand, garnering a US$1089 per kilogram price tag.

The company says it’s working toward a maiden gallium resource estimate, while also advancing a separate graphite-based scoping study to be wrapped up this quarter.

SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While OD6 Metals and Kingsland Minerals are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.