SYDNEY, June 27, 2026, 04:04 AEST
- PLS Group Limited ASX:PLS dropped 6.32% to finish at A$5.04 on Friday. The S&P/ASX 200 (INDEXASX:XJO) advanced 0.18% to 8,764.20. Google
- In its latest ASX filing, the company disclosed 618,302 shares under its employee plan, making up roughly 0.019% of post-quotation capital. Company Announcements
- Friday’s slide wiped around A$1.1 billion in equity value. The shares, newly listed, finished at about A$3.1 million.
- Lithium carbonate futures in China dropped 6.3% to 145,320 yuan per tonne on Friday, ending the week down nearly 10%. Market Index
PLS Group Limited ASX:PLS posted one of the clearer split moves among lithium names on the ASX into the weekend: a minor employee-share print, but the bigger hit came from the commodity side. The stock dropped 34 cents to close at A$5.04 on Friday, after touching a low of A$5.00, according to Google Finance data. Google
PLS has lodged an application to quote 618,302 ordinary fully paid shares that were issued on June 17 under its employee incentive scheme. The shares had nil cash consideration. After this quotation, PLS has 3,221,617,827 ordinary shares on issue, according to the Appendix 2A released to the ASX. Company Announcements
At the end of Friday’s session, the new shares carried a market value close to A$3.1 million. PLS’s share price dropped in a single day, taking around A$1.1 billion off the company’s equity value on the updated share count. This is notable since the stock wasn’t trading with dilution as the concern—it was acting as a lithium price proxy. Google
PLS lagged the broader market Friday, dropping 6.32% on the day. The S&P/ASX 200 added 15.50 points to finish at 8,764.20. About 21.74 million PLS shares changed hands, less than the 37.68 million average listed by Google. Google
Lithium stocks slid with the broader sector. Market Index said Chinese lithium carbonate futures dropped 6.3% to 145,320 yuan a tonne early Friday, off almost 10% for the week. By 12:31 p.m. in Sydney, PLS had fallen 4.7% on the session and was down 14.6% for the week. Core Lithium Ltd ASX:CXO and Liontown Ltd ASX:LTR also traded lower. Market Index
PLS finished about 26% under its 52-week high of A$6.81, but still trades at four times the 52-week low of A$1.26. The stock is now between a steep drop in June and the bigger rally that ran up to it. Google
Macquarie told Market Index the latest lithium correction was sentiment-driven. The bank called worries about CATL’s Jianxiawo mine restarting and sodium-ion battery replacement overblown. In its note, Macquarie said lithium carbonate and spodumene dropped around 20% and 18% since mid-May. Both prices are still up sharply for the year. Market Index
Investors got more numbers to weigh after PLS last week signed off on about A$175 million in pre-final investment decision spending for the P2000 project at Pilgangoora. The move could take concentrate output to around 2.0 million tonnes a year. The feasibility study should land in the December quarter of 2026. A final investment decision will still depend on the study, available funding, and market conditions. PLS
Pilbara Minerals Managing Director and CEO Dale Henderson said the spending kept PLS on the “critical path,” but the board will wait for a final sign-off until the market and funding case stack up. The timing leaves the share price exposed to near-term lithium swings: when prices drop, selling a growth capex story is tough, even if the outlay is small compared to PLS’s market cap. PLS
Bullish operating case is still in play. Reuters said in April that PLS hit a record with 232,436 dry metric tonnes of spodumene concentrate produced in the March quarter, up 86% year on year. The company kept its 2026 production guidance at 820,000 to 870,000 tonnes. Henderson told Reuters lithium demand was “deepening and broadening.” RBC Capital’s Kaan Peker called the quarter “a clear beat.” Reuters
A$5.00 on the intraday chart and 145,320 yuan for lithium carbonate futures are the main levels in play this week. If prices fall below those marks, the P2000 timing case could come under more strain. If they hold or rebound, traders will look back to the next operating update, what the Ngungaju restart will cost, and the P2000 study due for the December quarter.
