With the push towards electrification of vehicles, the price of lithium in its raw and refined forms has shot to record highs
With lithium carbonate now resting at an all-time high of A$106,626 per tonne, there's been a flurry of investor activity on ASX-listed shares producing the battery metal.
The Global X Battery Tech & Lithium ETF (ASX: ACDC) has gained nearly 2% in the past month of trade and has lifted 16% off its low point on 7 July.
Driving the upside in recent times has been government stimulus in China that has spurred growth in electric vehicle demand, whilst the U.S.'s 'inflation reduction act' offers tax breaks for individuals considering purchasing an electric vehicle.
These two recent factors in combination with the soaring aggregate demand for lithium-ion batteries and electric vehicles has created a buoyant market for both lithium and the companies mining or producing the metal.
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What ASX lithium shares have been in favour?
Whilst there's been some triple-digit gains in the small and micro-cap end of the market in 2022, here I'll concentrate on the larger capitalised lithium stocks.
And there's been some stellar performances on the chart this year from this particular cohort.
Two standouts have been the Core Lithium Ltd (ASX: CXO) share price and the Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS) share price, up 131% and 52% in 2022 respectively.
Both shares have seen their 4-week average trading volume lift to 15.3 million and 6.3 million shares respectively – well above previous averages.
Meanwhile, there are plenty more ASX lithium shares catching a strong bid lately.
Names such as Sayona Mining Ltd (ASX: SYA) have soared from the June bounce in equities and recently shot back towards 52-week highs, before turning sharply back to the downside.
Similar patterns have been observed with The Lake Resources N.L. (ASX: LKE) share price, itself having a difficult time in 2022 after whipsawing between $2.45 and 62.5 cents per share.
It now trades well off its previous highs and is down almost 13% for the past month of trade.
The same can't be said for the Allkem Ltd (ASX: AKE) share price, however. It has continued on a one-way journey up north and thrust past 52-week highs of $15.96 on 20 September.
It has since levelled off and trades 5% down on the day, despite no market-sensitive news.
These 5 names form a core basket of ASX lithium players that sit at the large end of town. However, the entire spectrum of lithium shares has benefitted from the market activity this year.
It remains to be seen where the market will head next. Forecasts at both ends of the analyst matrix are estimating a sustained increase all the way down to a plummet in the lithium price.
Time will tell, but that's something to think about.
