ASX uranium shares broadly benefited in the first part of the 2022 financial year (FY22) amid fast rising prices for the metal.
What happened with uranium prices in FY22?
Uranium prices tracked higher over the first nine months, reaching more than US$64 per pound in mid-April, according to data from Trading Economics. Since then, prices have fallen back to US$48 per pound, though that's still well above the US$30 per pound on 30 June 2021.
Global interest in the metal, used in nuclear reactors to generate electricity, was rekindled in 2021 amid increased focus on slashing carbon emissions. Whilst nuclear energy entails having to deal with the radioactive waste post electricity production, it essentially produces no greenhouse gases.
Soaring energy prices in 2022, spurred higher by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, has also seen more political interest in using uranium to provide baseload power.
So, how did all this impact ASX uranium shares?
ASX uranium shares broadly beat the benchmark
All up, it was a mixed bag for investors of ASX uranium shares in FY22, though most beat the benchmark index.
Here's how some of the top producers and explorers stacked up against the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) over the 12 month period.
- All Ordinaries Index(ASX: XAO) lost 11.1%
- Paladin Energy Ltd (ASX: PDN) closed FY21 trading for 52 cents and finished FY22 at 58 cents, a gain of 11.5%
- Deep Yellow Limited (ASX: DYL) kicked off FY221 at 72 cents and finished at 60 cents, a loss of 16.7%
- Bannerman Energy Ltd (ASX: BMN) opened and closed the 2022 financial year at 17 cents per share, for a change of 0.0%
- Boss Energy Ltd (ASX: BOE) finished FY21 at 18 cents and closed FY22 at $1.77, a gain of 22%
Looking over that list you'll see that three of the four ASX uranium shares handily outperformed the All Ordinaries in FY22.
You may also be questioning our maths.
If the Boss Energy share price went from 18 cents to $1.77, surely that's a gain of 833%, not 22%?
The discrepancy there is in the share consolidation that Boss Energy carried out back in November. That saw every eight Boss Energy shares consolidated into one 'new' share. With that in mind, the FY22 closing price for this ASX uranium share in relatable terms to its FY21 closing price needs to be divided by eight.
So instead of $1.77, we get 22 cents.
Still, an impressive 22% year-on-year gain for Boss Energy.
