ASX 200 stocks hitting fresh 52-week highs and lows – Week 35

Welcome back to the 52-Week Series, where we recap the S&P/ASX 200 stocks that have hit fresh yearly highs and lows over the past week. Tracking this data point helps identify emerging trends across various stocks and sectors.

When clusters of stocks within a sector reach new highs or lows, it often points to meaningful underlying drivers such as shifting commodity prices, changing demand patterns (such as AI, pivots into defensive sectors, consumer weakness etc), or companies beating/missing earnings expectations.

52-Week highs and lows by sector

• Materials: 4 Highs, 2 Lows

• Industrials: 3 Highs, 1 Low

• Health Care: 2 Highs, 0 Lows

• Staples: 2 Highs, 0 Lows

• Technology: 1 High, 0 Lows

• Energy: 1 High, 0 Lows

• Real Estate: 0 Highs, 2 Lows

• Financials: 0 Highs, 1 Low

• Telecommunications: 0 Highs, 1 Low

• Discretionary: 0 Highs, 0 Lows

• Utilities: 0 Highs, 0 Lows

What Does the Data Tell Us?

• It’s still quiet out there: Since June, the commentary for this 52-week series remained pretty much the same. Breadth is thin and almost no sector is showing a meaningful volume of yearly highs or lows. To sum up why: Battered sectors like Discretionary, Healthcare and Tech bottomed in recent months, while high-flyers like Materials and Energy took a breather. Last week was no different, with results doing most of the work. NWH, SRG, Codan, Fisher & Paykel and Santos all pushed to new highs on FY26 numbers, while Downer, Telstra and Westpac tanked on results and updates.

• Watch out for gold: The tables below offer a quiet tell for what’s coming, with Vault and Capricorn marking fresh 52-week highs. Gold has rallied more than 15% since mid-July but still sits around 20% below the brief January record of US$5,598/oz. That recovery, or perhaps just evidence prices have found a floor, has driven the All Ords Gold Index up almost 40% since mid-July. It’s an interesting relationship, where gold equities offer leveraged upside to the metal, so when gold rolled over from its generational run, the miners fell harder. Now that gold is stabilising and the miners are still printing cash, a few of the smoother operators have V-shaped straight back to record highs. Newmont is trading within 3% of its 29 January record and is up 22% year-to-date, despite being down as much as 15% for the year to 21 July.

• Commodity complex heats up: Beyond gold, the broader complex is warming up, with BHP the first of the majors to trade at fresh 52-week highs. Its FY26 result on 18 August delivered 30% underlying profit growth to US$13.2 billion and a full-year dividend of US172 cents, a 7.5% beat against Macquarie’s 160 cent estimate. It was the first full-year result where copper contributed more than half of group earnings, at 54% of EBITDA, and management is firmly positioned for more copper growth from here. Against a backdrop where the US Treasury is actively trying to suppress long-term bond yields, and pressuring the US dollar in the process, the complex looks increasingly bullish. The S&P/ASX 200 Materials Index rose 2.1% to record highs on Monday, so expect next week’s 52-week series to feature a broader list of miners, provided things don’t deteriorate over the rest of the week.

ASX 200 stocks at 52-week highs

S&P/ASX 200 stocks and sectors that hit a 52-week high last week, sorted by one-year returns. Data as at Friday, 21 August 2026.

ASX 200 stocks at 52-week lows

S&P/ASX 200 stocks and sectors that hit a 52-week low last week, sorted by one-year returns. Data as at Friday, 21 August 2026.