With just a few hours of trade left before Friday's closing bell, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is down 2.3% for the week, despite the best lifting efforts of these three outperforming ASX 200 stocks.
Two of this week's top performers earn their keep digging coal from the ground. The third is focused on rare earths.
Which high-performing stocks am I talking about?
Read on!
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ASX 200 stocks riding the surging coal price
The two ASX coal shares on my top performer list this week are Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX: WHC) and Yancoal Australia Ltd (ASX: YAL).
Yancoal shares are really shooting the lights out. Shares in the ASX 200 coal stock closed last Friday trading for $6.33. At the time of writing today, shares are swapping hands for $7.96 apiece. That puts the Yancoal share price up 25.7% in this week's slumping market.
Whitehaven shares are also enjoying a strong run. Whitehaven shares closed last week at $8.48 and are currently trading for $9.38 each, up 10.6%.
Both miners have enjoyed improving investor sentiment amid the surging coal price. Spurred by energy concerns as the Middle East conflict heats up, the thermal coal price is ending the week at around US$139 per tonne. That's up some 19% in March.
There was no price-sensitive news out from Yancoal this week. But Whitehaven shares got an added boost on Thursday, closing the day up 6.7%, after the ASX 200 stock reported that it had received public credit ratings from S&P, Fitch, and Moody's.
Whitehaven's investment grade ratings are expected to offer the miner improved access to global debt capital markets.
Which brings us to…
Also smashing the benchmark this week
Lynas Rare Earths Ltd (ASX: LYC) shares are also pleasing investors this week.
Lynas shares closed last Friday trading for $18.33. In late afternoon trade today, shares are swapping hands for $20.27. That sees this ASX 200 stock up 10.8% for the week, racing ahead of the benchmark's loss.
All of those gains, and then some, were delivered on Wednesday, 11 March.
Lynas shares closed up a whopping 16.2% on the day after the miner reported on an amended supply agreement with Japan Australia Rare Earths (JARE).
The new agreement extends JARE's offtake agreement of 5,000 tonnes per year of NdPr (neodymium and praseodymium) through to 2038. Lynas will receive a minimum of US$110 per kilogram for those rare earths.
JARE also committed to buying 50% of all Heavy Rare Earth (HRE) oxides produced by the ASX 200 stock.
"We are delighted that the revised 12-year availability and supply agreement with JARE will support both Japanese industry and the continued growth and development of Lynas," Lynas CEO Amanda Lacaze said.
