Sydney, Feb 27, 2026, 17:39 (AEDT) — After-hours
- Northern Star Resources closed up 2.2% on Friday as ASX gold stocks led gains.
- Gold held near recent highs, supported by falling “real” yields, analysts said.
- Next focus: Northern Star’s ex-dividend date next week and its April quarterly update.
Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX:NST) shares ended Friday up 2.2% at A$30.28, lifting with a late bid in Australian gold miners as bullion held near recent highs. 1
With the market shut for the week, the move matters because Friday was the last session of February and positioning tends to get messy into month-end. Northern Star is also heading into an ex-dividend week, a setup that can pull in yield funds and short-term traders at the margin.
There’s a second angle, less tidy: the stock is still trading with a “prove it” label after earlier guidance resets on volumes and costs. When that’s the backdrop, gold can be your friend, but it doesn’t excuse operational slips.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 eked out a record close, up 0.25% at 9,198.60, broadcaster ABC reported. 2
Gold stocks did the heavy lifting inside materials. A Reuters market report said gold names jumped 3.4% and helped push the broader mining sub-index to a record high in early trade, with Northern Star and Evolution Mining up about 2.1% each. 3
Gold itself was steady around $5,185 an ounce in early Asian hours and on track for a monthly rise of more than 6%, its seventh straight month of gains, Reuters reported. “Real yields” — bond yields after inflation — have dropped and that has been supportive, Kelvin Wong, a senior market analyst at OANDA, said. 4
Northern Star’s interim dividend of 25 Australian cents a share goes ex-dividend on March 4, with a March 5 record date and payment due March 26, an ASX filing showed. The payout is 100% franked, and the dividend reinvestment plan is available for this distribution, with elections due by 5 p.m. on March 6. 5
In its half-year update this month, Northern Star reiterated revised FY26 gold sales guidance of 1.6 million to 1.7 million ounces and all-in sustaining cost guidance of A$2,600 to A$2,800 per ounce. “All-in sustaining cost”, or AISC, is the industry’s catch-all cost metric that tries to include mine operating costs plus the sustaining spend needed to keep production going. 6
But the trade can still flip fast. A rebound in the U.S. dollar or yields would usually take air out of gold, and miners tend to feel that first; at the company level, any fresh stumble in throughput or grades would push costs back into the spotlight.
Next up is how the stock behaves through the ex-dividend week and whether bullion can hold near its recent highs into early March. Northern Star’s next scheduled market update is its March-quarter report on April 22, according to the company’s calendar. 7
