ASX finishes lower as gold and critical minerals stocks drag

The news: The Australian sharemarket finished lower, as gold and critical minerals miners led losses after US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping renewed trade talks on tariffs and export controls on rare earths in a rare phone call.

The benchmark ASX 200 fell 0.27% to close at 8515.7, with two of 11 sectors finishing in the green.

Biggest movers:

• Gold miners – West African Resources (-8.4%) led losses at the end of a week in which it agreed that the Burkina Faso government would take a larger equity share in its projects. Regis Resources (-5.8%) and Genesis Minerals (-3.4%) also fell sharply.
• Critical minerals stocks – Lithium and rare earth metal businesses also fell amid hopes for potential for relief from China’s export controls on critical minerals. Pilbara Minerals (-5.2%), Liontown Resources (-2.3%) and Iluka Resources (-3.8%) were among the worst performers, paring huge gains made on Thursday.
• Whitehaven Coal (+3.6%) – Was the biggest gainer on the ASX 200 as Morgan Stanley analysts reiterated their ‘overweight’ position on the stock as it looks set to make $100 million in annual run-rate cost savings across its Queensland assets by the end of FY25.
• Qantas (+3.5%) – Was among the top performers after its rival Virgin confirmed the details of its initial public offering and announced changes to its board.
• James Hardie Industries (+2.4%) – Priced its $1.7 billion debt offering to support its acquisition of outdoor living company AZEK, after being added to a Morningstar watch list earlier in the week.
• Australia’s biggest miners BHP (+0.7%) and Fortescue (+1%) both finished higher but Rio Tinto fell (-0.4%). Meanwhile, Commonwealth Bank (-0.8%), Westpac (-0.4%) and ANZ (-0.4%) finished lower while NAB (+0.2%) saw gains.

Other news:

• Life360 (-0.1%) – Closed an upsized $320 million debt offering with institutional buyers.
• Worley (-0.5%) – The engineering services company won a contract from US energy developer Glenfarne Group to support final investment decision on Alaska LNG pipeline.
• Fletcher Building (-2.7%) – The building products group is being sued for NZD330 million ($306 million) in damages by Casino operator SkyCity Entertainment for delays in the construction of its Auckland convention centre.
• EBR Systems (5%) – Successfully completed the first commercial US implants of its WiSE cardiac resynchronisation therapy system.
• Redox (-7.3%) – Told the ASX it is not aware of any unannounced information that could explain this week's selloff.
• Ora Banda Mining (-14.1%) – Revised its gold production guidance down by about 5% as costs grow by about 4%.