The best performing ASX companies in March: Liontown, gold and tech stocks

Believe it or not – The ASX 200 finished March down just -1.1%. 

The onset of the Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse collapse triggered a sharp -5.0% drawdown by March 20 before a V-shaped relief rally kicked in towards the end of the month.

The banking crisis triggered a sharp increase in gold prices and surprisingly, strong inflows into mega cap US tech companies, which were viewed as the new safe haven sector.

The 20 best performing stocks in March

Note: For companies with a market cap greater than $300 million.

Takeovers: Is cash still king?

Liontown topped the performance leaderboard after receiving an unsolicited $2.50 per share bid from global heavyweight Albemarle. The $5.5 billion offer represented a 64% premium to the stock’s pre-bid close of $1.53.

United Malt was another takeover target in March, receiving a $5.00 per share offer from Malteries Soufflet, which represents a 45.3% premium to its last close.

What’s really interesting is that both of these offers (as well as recent bids like Oz Minerals, Mincor and Origin Energy) are made in CASH during a period where everybody is saying ‘cash is king’.

So what could this M&A activity be telling us?

There seems to be a focus on critical metals such as copper, nickel and lithium. 

Are the bids offering too much or too little – that’s up for debate.

But are they strategic bids focused on securing future facing commodities – absolutely.

Gold makes a comeback

The US banking crisis triggered a sharp pullback for the dollar and a powerful rally for gold – up as much as 10.9% between 7-20 March and briefly topped US$2,000 an ounce for the first time since April 2022.

Outperformance has come from rather beaten up and volatile mid-cap gold names such as Resolute Mining, Westgold Resources and St Barbara.

However, a little further down the rankings you’ll find household names like Newcrest Mining and Northern Star.

The pullback for gold has been rather shallow and it's currently holding the US$1,950 level. As uncertainty and volatility continues to plague the market – do we see another strong month for the yellow metal?

Gold spot price (Source: TradingView)