Four ASX shares that are not letting that hold them back are listed below. Here's why they are rising:

AUB Group Ltd (ASX: AUB)

The AUB share price is up 9% to $39.12. Investors have been buying this insurance broker's shares after it received a takeover approach. It received an unsolicited, confidential and non-binding indicative proposal from Arbutus, an entity affiliated with EQT, to acquire it for $45.00 cash per share. In response, the company's board said: "After careful consideration, the AUB board determined that it would be in the best interests of AUB shareholders to enter into a confidentiality and exclusivity agreement with EQT to further progress the proposal as exclusivity was a key condition of the proposal."

Domino's Pizza Enterprises Ltd (ASX: DMP)

The Domino's share price is up 17% to $18.13. This has also been driven by takeover news. According to reports, Bain Capital has tabled an offer that values the pizza chain operator at $4 billion. Domino's has not yet confirmed the reports but its shares have been put in a trading pause. This could be an indication that it is preparing a response to the speculation.

DroneShield Ltd (ASX: DRO)

The DroneShield share price is up almost 5% to $4.82. This is despite there being no news out of the counter drone technology company today. However, with its shares pulling back materially from recent highs, it is possible that some investors believe they are attractively priced. Bell Potter thinks this would be a good idea. Last week, it put a buy rating and $5.30 price target on its shares. It said: "We expect 2026 will be an inflection point for the global counter-drone industry with countries poised to unleash a wave of spending on soft-kill detect and defeat solutions. Consequently, we believe DRO should win a material portion of its $2,550m potential sales pipeline over the next 3-6 months as defence budgets roll over to FY26."

Focus Minerals Ltd (ASX: FML)

The Focus Minerals share price is up 22% to $2.61. This morning, this gold miner released its quarterly update and revealed a strong performance from the Coolgardie Gold Project. Focus Minerals reported 20,014 ounces of gold were sold at an average realised price of $5,288 per ounce, alongside 2,540 ounces of silver credits. As a result, the company ended the period with cash of $113.6 million.

The post Why AUB, Domino's, DroneShield, and Focus Minerals shares are storming higher appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

The company was issued a speeding ticket by the ASX and asked whether there was any information not yet disclosed to the market which should be.

The company's shares have been heavily traded over the past couple of days, with 773,000 shares changing hands on Thursday and more than 1.2 million by mid-afternoon on Friday, compared with the usual volume of about 350,000.

The shares traded as high as $1.06 on Friday, up from the previous close of 79.5 cents. By mid-afternoon, they were changing hands for 98 cents, up 23.3%. At the start of September, the shares were just 37 cents.

The ASX wrote to the company asking, "Is Focus Minerals aware of any information concerning it that has not been announced to the market which, if known by some in the market, could explain the recent trading in its securities?''

Focus said it was not, and that as far as it was aware, it was compliant with the ASX listing rules.

Focus owns the Coolgardie Gold Project in Western Australia, where it has a significant tenement package and assets, including a 1.2 million tonne per annum processing plant at Three Mile Hill.

Production solid for the first half

In its most recent half-year report, released in mid-September, the company said it had processed 712,711 tonnes of ore through that plant, of which 544,920 tonnes were its own ore and the remainder toll treatment ore.

Gold sales for the period were 11,326 ounces with an average price of $4803 per ounce. The company has also sold 1037 ounces of silver credits. Mill production remained stable and efficient throughout the period.

During the first half, Focus also entered into a deal with Genesis Minerals Limited (ASX: GMD) for the sale of its Laverton Gold Project for $250 million in cash.

The sale was completed on 4 June 2025. As part of its capital management initiative, Focus has repaid its major shareholder, Shandong Gold, of all outstanding loans plus interest of approximately $174.8 million using proceeds from the sale.

Focus said an area for future work would be more drilling at its Greater Undaunted target area, where it would focus on grade control drilling and resource definition to progress the deposits in the area towards being production-ready.

Focus was valued at $227.8 million at the close of trade on Thursday.  

The post This mining company has no ideas why its shares, up more than 100% this month, are taking off appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

The high-flying company in question is junior gold explorer Focus Minerals Ltd (ASX: FML).

Focus Minerals shares closed on Friday trading for 22.5 cents apiece. In earlier trade, shares just jumped to 60 cents, up an eye-popping 166.6%. After some likely profit-taking, shares are changing hands for 48.5 cents each at time of writing, up 115.6%.

Here's what's catching ASX investor interest on Monday.

ASX gold stock surges on $250 million mine sale

Investors are piling into Focus Mineral shares after the miner announced that it has entered into a binding Share Purchase Agreement with S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) listed gold stock Genesis Minerals Ltd (ASX: GMD) for the acquisition of Focus Mineral's Laverton Gold Project, located in Western Australia.

Under the agreement, Genesis Minerals will pay an upfront cash consideration of $250 million for the Laverton project. The Genisis Minerals share price is up 1.4% today, at $4.40.

Focus Minerals said that selling Laverton in the current high gold price environment is a strategic decision that it expects to deliver immediate shareholder value. And judging by today's price action, that expectation is proving spot on.

Commenting on the asset sale sending the ASX gold stock rocketing today, Focus Minerals executive chairman Wanghong Yang said:

We are extremely pleased with the outcome achieved in the sale of Laverton and believe the consideration payable represents compelling value to our shareholders.

Proceeds from the sale of Laverton will strengthen the financial position of the company as it continues with development at the Bonnie Vale Underground Mine and open pit mining operations at the Coolgardie Gold Project.

Gensis Minerals' acquisition of Laverton is expected to be completed in early June.

Genesis Minerals expects big results

Genisis Minerals noted that the Laverton Gold Project has a global Mineral Resource of around 4 million ounces at 1.7 grams per tonne of gold. Management noted that the acquisition price equates to a cash consideration of around AU$63 per resource ounce.

The project has Reserves of 546,000 ounces at 1.3 grams per tonne of gold.

The ASX 200 gold stock also cited "substantial scope for Resource growth, with a large tenement package comprising highly prospective gold tenure", with an added advantage that the Laverton mill is only 30 kilometres distant.

"This is the perfect bolt-on acquisition. It delivers a substantial 4-million-ounce Resource with immense exploration upside right next to our Laverton mill," Genesis managing director Raleigh Finlayson said.

The post Guess which ASX gold stock just rocketed 167% on big news! appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

At one stage today, the gold explorer and developer's shares were up a whopping 39% to 36.2 cents.

In afternoon trade, the Focus Minerals share price has pulled back a touch from its intraday high but remains up 17% to 30.5 cents.

Why is the Focus Minerals share price rocketing higher?

While there isn't any real news out of the company today to explain the sensational rise in the Focus Minerals share price, there is a likely explanation for it.

That is Theta Gold Mines Ltd (ASX: TGM) and its aim of acquiring the company via a hostile takeover.

Theta Gold Mines recently offered 2 of its own shares for ever Focus share owned. At the time, this implied a value of 36 cents for each Focus share, which represented a 41.2% premium to the Focus share price of 25.5 cents on 8 December.

However, Focus wasn't biting and told shareholders not to take action in response to the offer.

Why is Theta interest in Focus?

Theta explained the rationale for the acquisition.

It said: "The TGM [Theta Gold Mines] Offer will, if accepted, allow Focus shareholders to become members of a larger, more liquid and more geographically diverse group. Should [major shareholder] Shandong Gold accept the Offer, the resultant combined group would have a combined exploration portfolio of over 1,000km2 spread across the West Australian goldfields and South Africa. Should Shandong Gold not accept the Offer, TGM's Offer seeks to aggregate minority holdings in Focus and (with an increased holding and substantial management experience) would allow TGM to exercise influence to encourage the prompt development of the Focus assets."

Given the significantly higher than normal volume today, it could be a sign that Theta Gold is looking to buy shares on market to build up a position that supports its takeover proposal.

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