Lunch Wrap: Anthropic buzz gives ASX tech and engineering stocks a kick

• ASX gives Wall Street’s rally the cold shoulder
• Anthropic fires up the AI crowd again
• Star Casino finally hits a winning streak

The S&P/ASX 200 spent most of the morning in the red before staging a little comeback to trade flat as we write.

Wall Street was in a cracking mood last night, thanks to yet another outbreak of AI fever.

This time, it was Anthropic, the mob behind Claude, making all the noise.

It’s filed for a monster Nasdaq IPO under the proposed ticker ANT – with talk of a valuation around US$1.5 trillion ($2.1tn), and some estimates stretching to US$2tn.

Back home on the ASX, mining and tech stocks were doing the rescuing again, while staples were letting the team down.

One mob that did get the memo was the data centre crowd.

Southern Cross Electrical Engineering (ASX:SXE) and SKS Technologies (ASX:SKS) attracted buyers as Anthropic’s IPO news fired up interest in AI infrastructure stocks.

Turns out the bloke holding the screwdriver might make a decent quid out of the AI revolution too.

Meanwhile, speaking of AI, micro-cap SCX.ai (ASX:SCX) jumped 6% after being selected as the only Australian launch partner in SpaceX’s new Super Intelligence Partner Network.

Not bad company to be keeping, considering other partners include Nvidia, Snowflake and Databricks.

The deal means SCX.ai will help run SpaceX’s Grok AI technology on computers based here in Australia.

In the big end of town…

Now here’s something you don’t hear every day.

Star Entertainment Group (ASX:SGR) has finally given shareholders a reason to smile, with its shares rocketing more than 17%.

Yep, the casino operator that’s spent the past couple of years collecting problems like Pokémon cards has actually delivered some decent numbers.

Quarterly EBITDA came in at $12 million, compared with a $13m loss a year earlier. That’s a $25m turnaround.

Over in mining, Sandfire Resources (ASX:SFR) edged 1% higher after churning out 38,900 tonnes of copper equivalent in the September quarter, pretty much bang on market expectations.

That’s a quarter of its annual production target midpoint, so the copper miner is ticking along nicely.

Perseus Mining (ASX:PRU), meanwhile, had a slightly more awkward morning.

The gold miner produced 92,551 ounces, around 8% below UBS’s expectations, while costs climbed 5% to US$2035 an ounce, roughly 9% above forecasts.

Planned maintenance was partly to blame. Still, it’s hardly surviving on instant noodles.

Perseus sold 99,661 ounces at an average US$3881 each, generating US$171m in notional operating cash flow.

And finally… CSL (ASX:CSL) has told shareholders to expect underlying profit growth of about 5% this financial year, with revenue going pretty much nowhere.

Interim boss Gordon Naylor also warned that competition is making life difficult for its Vifor kidney and iron-deficiency business.

Not the sort of update that has investors doing cartwheels, especially after CSL reported a near-$3.7 bn statutory loss last financial year.

CSL shares down 0.5%.

ASX LEADERS

Today’s best performing stocks (including small caps) intraday:

Security Description Last % Volume MktCap NGX NGX Limited 0.105 50% 822,370 $6,342,829 ELK ELK Range Mining 0.175 30% 9,199,831 $11,128,397 DM1 Desert Metals 0.009 29% 15,571,150 $4,682,152 TAL Talius Group Limited 0.059 28% 91,153 $15,839,552 LCY Legacy Iron Ore 0.005 25% 79,484 $39,048,170 SRJ SRJ Technologies 0.005 25% 198,159 $6,892,874 ONE Oneview Healthcare 0.145 21% 222,999 $100,744,067 FCT Firstwave Cloud Tech 0.006 20% 20,000 $11,390,839 SGR The Star Ent Grp 0.138 20% 13,245,063 $763,163,319 PUR Pursuit Minerals 0.077 18% 14,142 $17,030,727 EVE EVE Health Group Ltd 0.013 18% 913,682 $3,875,593 SVY Stavely Minerals Ltd 0.013 18% 40,000 $11,358,737 1AD Adalta Limited 0.004 17% 324,080 $9,636,507 AQX Alice Queen Ltd 0.007 17% 3,478,505 $13,923,511 AUV Auravelle Metals 0.007 17% 850,169 $5,543,285 CDE Codeifai Limited 0.004 17% 65,000 $3,598,676 MAY Melbana Energy Ltd 0.004 17% 2,703,419 $11,345,906 TMS Tennant Minerals Ltd 0.007 17% 1,546,765 $8,979,958 DXN DXN Limited 0.295 16% 1,627,591 $96,079,971 BHD Benjamin Horngld Ltd 0.340 15% 864,871 $7,125,796 ION Iondrive Limited 0.094 15% 1,329,341 $108,803,146 1CG One Click Group Ltd 0.008 14% 524,287 $9,151,003 ALM Alma Metals Ltd 0.008 14% 1,378,692 $18,443,820 NH3 Nh3Cleanenergyltd 0.105 14% 1,604,228 $70,118,280 EMH European Metals Hldg 0.135 13% 49,330 $28,538,245

NGX (ASX:NGX) came out of a trading halt with some big plans in Namibia, securing rights to acquire up to 85% of seven gold exploration licences covering more than 1300km² near WIA Gold’s 3.78-million-ounce Kokoseb deposit.

It’s also lined up a nearby copper project and raised $3.6m to fund exploration, although finding its own gold is still the next big test.

Elk Range Mining (ASX:ELK) has struck some serious gold at its Friday project in Idaho, with its first drill hole hitting a whopping 290.3m at 2.8g/t gold, including 89.6m at 5.5g/t.

Even better, the gold continued about 170m beyond where an earlier hole stopped, suggesting there’s plenty more to investigate.

Desert Metals (ASX:DM1) has struck a deal to sell its 80% stake in the Tengrela South gold project in Côte d’Ivoire for up to $5m, plus a 1% royalty on future production.

It’ll get $2.5m by completion, with the rest dependent on permit renewal, giving it cash to chase gold at Adzope without issuing more shares.

ASX LAGGARDS

Today’s worst performing stocks (including small caps) intraday:

Security Description Last % Volume MktCap HE8 Helios Energy Ltd 0.001 -33% 10,200 $5,826,458 OVT Ovanti Limited 0.001 -33% 70,000 $1,847,511 RNX Renegade Exploration 0.002 -25% 31,019 $4,139,594 ID1 Identifai Genetics 0.300 -23% 290,123 $42,485,165 AX8 Accelerate Resources 0.004 -20% 447,545 $7,330,944 MEM Memphasys Ltd 0.004 -20% 111,000 $15,476,169 RAD Radiopharm 0.004 -20% 622,807 $23,554,414 LDX Lumos Diagnostics 0.069 -18% 8,905,526 $83,005,967 ALV Alvomin 0.071 -17% 18,509,939 $29,062,826 I88 Infini Resources Ltd 0.100 -17% 695,996 $12,984,868 IXC Invex Ther 0.100 -17% 85,635 $9,018,462 ACM Aus Critical Mineral 0.020 -17% 394,625 $3,599,554 AOK Australian Oil. 0.003 -17% 5,200,000 $7,293,177 C7A Clara Resources 0.003 -17% 1,250,000 $7,512,534 OLI Oliver'S Real Food 0.005 -17% 15,392 $3,244,392 MVL Marvel Gold Limited 0.011 -15% 8,500 $18,848,916 AMN Agrimin Ltd 0.030 -14% 377,307 $13,647,530 EGY Energy Tech Ltd 0.030 -14% 587,352 $21,864,467 MGU Magnum Mining & Exp 0.006 -14% 1,951,623 $22,491,260 SBR Sabre Resources 0.006 -14% 142,857 $6,401,234 EGA Eastern Gas Corp 0.130 -13% 70,000 $4,125,000 AAJ Aruma Resources Ltd 0.004 -13% 454,065 $6,182,534 SLZ Sultan Resources Ltd 0.007 -13% 260,595 $5,851,620 SER Strategic Energy 0.175 -13% 3,004 $14,311,197 AUQ Alara Resources Ltd 0.056 -11% 1,067,832 $57,721,874

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Argent BioPharma (ASX:RGT) has licensed four cannabis genotypes to Thai Phytomed International for a 15% royalty on commercialisation profits.

Auravelle Metals (ASX:AUV) has extended a gold-anomalous trend beyond 3km at its Nuckulla Hill project in South Australia.

Pursuit Minerals (ASX:PUR) has planned 3350m of diamond drilling to test deeper gold-silver targets at Sascha Marcelina in Argentina.

Rapid Critical Metals (ASX:RCM) has logged visible zinc and/or lead sulphides in all seven maiden holes at Prophet River, with assays pending.

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

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