Gold stocks dominated August as the ASX hit a record high, with five standout companies surging on stronger gold prices and solid results.
Quick heads up: everything below is what happened in August. Past performance tells you nothing about what comes next (these share prices can fall just as fast as they rose).
The Australian share market hit a record high early in August… and closed up by 1.1% at the end of the month.
So why did the ASX perform so well? One theory comes back to AI (and not in the way you’d expect).
The ASX doesn’t have a lot of AI companies listed. And that means as cracks start to appear in the semiconductor trade, our share market had less to lose. A solid earnings report season has helped too.
Let’s take a look at how this played out in August in terms of the best-performing companies (see if you can spot the trend)...
In fifth place… Westgold Resources, one of Australia’s leading gold producers. Its shares rose 34.7% in August, closing at $6.37 by the end of the month.
Why? Gold is considered a ‘haven asset,’ which means investors flock to it during times of economic uncertainty (read about it here). But 'haven' doesn't always mean stable… even after August's strong run, gold was still sitting about 21.8% below the record it set back in January.
Gold took off in early August on hopes of a diplomatic breakthrough in the Middle East, then got a second leg up mid-month when the US Treasury doubled its bond buybacks and US national debt ticked past $40 trillion… because whatever happens in the US economy tends to affect the rest of the world.
Which saw gold prices rise by as much as 15% in August. At its peak, the metal was trading near US$4,700 an ounce on 25 August, finishing the month up 10%.
Westgold Resources, which released some good results over the month, benefited from the surge.
Regis Resources is another one of our largest gold producers (sensing the theme yet?). Its shares soared by 36.3% in August, ending the month trading at $8.30 each.
Which means Regis is another company reaping the benefits of the August gold rush. Plus, it helped that the ASX 200 company had some decent FY 2026 results on 21 August.
Its gold sales revenue jumped 43% year on year to $2.35 billion (because of the rising gold price, rather than digging more of the metal). Talk about a good time to be a gold digger!
Okay, a bit of a detour from the gold rush.
CSL had a great August, with shares up 39.4%. CSL is an ASX-listed global biotech company that makes stuff like medicines, vaccines, and therapies for iron deficiency.
The company released results on 18 August revealing that revenue was actually down 1% year-on-year to US$15.8 billion… along with a net loss after tax of US$2.6 billion. That loss came from one-off writedowns and restructuring costs. And the business still made US$3.1 billion once you strip those back.
What investors really liked the sound of though was the positive future outlook. CSL predicted underlying profit should grow by 5% in FY27… and the interim CEO called it "a year of reset."
But as with any forecast, that may not actually play out.
And back to gold! Vault Minerals (another gold producer in Australia) saw its shares rocket by 39.8% in August.
This, of course, has a lot to do with the gold price hike we mentioned earlier. But it’s also down to some pretty strong FY 26 results…
Vault Minerals' revenue from metal sales is up 31% year on year to $1.88 billion. And investors liked the sound of that 🤷♀️
Plus, Vault hit the headlines in July over a $5.6 billion takeover offer from fellow Aussie gold giant Genesis Minerals.
And that brings us to our top performer for August…
Yup, more gold. Genesis Minerals is a Western Australian gold producer... which had a stellar month in August.
Shares were up a mammoth 44.0%! That meant the Aussie gold miner closed the month trading at $8.22.
The company reported sales revenue was up 89% year on year, to $1.74 billion. And investors were cheers-ing to that.
Gold was looking pretty shiny last month! But it’s important to remember how fast the market can swing. Gold prices fell by roughly 3% on the 28th of August… and it’s hard to know if prices will keep dropping in September.
As always, it’s good to know what’s going on with the market, but if you want any advice on what to invest in, it’s best to chat to a financial adviser.
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