ASX advances as mining, energy stocks jump; Bitcoin tumbles

Updated June 3, 2026 — 11:05am,first published June 3, 2026 — 5:15am

The Australian sharemarket has made a steady start to the session while oil prices advanced on pessimism over the prospects of the US and Iran reaching a peace deal as fighting flared up again in the Persian Gulf.

The S&P/ASX 200 was up 31 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 8755.40 in early trade, with five of 11 industry sectors in positive territory, led by materials and energy.

Mining stocks jumped higher, with BHP up 1.9 per cent, Rio Tinto up 1.6 per cent and Fortescue up 1.2 per cent. Northern Star continued to surge, jumping 7.5 per cent in early trade. It is the second-straight day of strong gains for the gold miner, which soared by 13.6 per cent on Tuesday after activist investor Elliott Management revealed it built a $1 billion-plus stake in the company and urged it to put itself up for sale. Evolution Mining was up 0.6 per cent.

Energy stocks advanced as oil rose for a third day. Israel is continuing attacks on Lebanon, jeopardising fragile, long-running negotiations between Washington and Tehran. The delay in a Middle East resolution is raising concerns that the world will need to tap crude inventories further as it waits for Persian Gulf exports to fully resume.

“With Middle East production likely not returning to pre-war levels until October-November at the earliest,” global inventories will fall by 800 million barrels, TD Securities commodity analysts including Bart Melek said in a note. “As such, we see Brent crude averaging $US104 a barrel in the second half of the year, with a risk of prices spiking above $US150 due to regional scarcities.”

Woodside Energy was up 0.5 per cent and Santos added 0.8 per cent in early trade. Ampol rose 2.6 per cent after the refiner announced it had received approval from the competition watchdog for its acquisition of EG Group Australia, having agreed to sell off 41 of its petrol stations to Metro Petroleum.

Financial stocks were mixed, with Commonwealth Bank and ANZ up 0.2 per cent, while Westpac was flat and National Australia Bank shed 0.6 per cent in early trade.

Gourmet food company Maggie Beer Holdings shot up more than 14 per cent after revealing a $10 million non-binding offer for its ailing Hampers and Gifts Australia business from a mysterious multinational buyer. It had bought the hamper business in 2021 for $40 million, wanting to rely on it for future growth.

“The company confirms that the counterparty’s identity is not information that a reasonable person would expect to have a material effect on the price or value of the