Top 10 at 11: ASX lifted by miners as US markets turn trade war into gains

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 10:15, once trading kicks-off in earnest.

In brief, this is what the markets have been up to this morning.

US markets ended the week overall higher despite the furious volley of tariffs levelled between the US, China, and Europe, seesawing wildly by 16% before settling in the green.

The S&P500 gained 1.8%, the Nasdaq 2.1% and the Dow Jones 1.6% over the second week of April.

Interestingly, Asian share markets also lifted in the same period. The Japanese Nikkei225 outperformed just about every other bourse, gaining 5.85%, while the Shanghai Composite Index gained 1.41% and the Hang Seng managed a 0.89% gain.

That doesn’t tell the full story, however, as just about every market from the US to Japan is down over the last month, anywhere from 12.71% (Hang Seng) to 3.34% (Nasdaq) to 0.60% (ASX).

Europe hasn’t escaped the bloodletting either – the FTSE300 is down 11% in the last month, the UK-based FTSE100 7.74%, and German DAX gained 8.65% in the last five days, but has fallen 11.37% over the last 30 days.

It’s not been a great start to the year for anyone, but there are hints of optimism shining on the market today.

Gold shines bright

The ASX All Ordinaries Gold index is up almost 2% in early trading, riding a recent surge in the gold price that saw it hit new highs of about US$3,240 last week.

The resources index is in similar shape, up 2.04% at time of writing with strong positive movements in the small caps in particular.

The big end of town is also on the rise – Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) has gained 1.78% in the first hour of trading, Newmont (ASX:NEM) 3.12% and BHP (ASX:BHP) 2.6%.

Real Estate and Energy are also in the green, lifting more than 1% each with Info Tech up 0.79%.

Now, onto our market movers for the morning.

WINNERS

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Making news this morning…

Grand Gulf Energy (ASX:GGE) doubled its share price to $0.003 a share after executing an options agreement to take a 70% working interest in an offshore oil exploration block in Namibia. There are seven offshore wells scheduled for drilling in the area in 2025, indicating high prospectivity.

A reassessment of geochemical data has revealed tungsten in Gold Mountain’s (ASX:GMN) Serido Belt project in Brazil, offering new tungsten targets along strike from known mines. Tungsten’s uses in semiconductors and defence industries have been driving an increase in demand globally.

Streamplay Studio (ASX:SP8) shares lifted after the company’s Noodlecake studio banked receipts of about $1.38m in the first quarter of the year. The gaming investment company also secured 50,000 pre-orders for its Super FlappyGolf game ahead of its imminent launch.

Elixir Energy (ASX:EXR) is preparing the path to formal development of the Grandis gas project in Queensland, tapping former Strike Energy (ASX:STX) CEO Stuart Nicholls to replace outgoing CEO and managing director Neil Young.

“Starting my Elixir journey today, I intend to bring the sum of my experiences from Strike Energy which over my tenue grew from a junior explorer into one of Australia’s most successful explorers and midcap energy producers,” Nicholls said.

 LAGGARDS

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