The ASX just had a “clearance sale” here’s where Charlie Aitken is looking for bargains

The recent sell-off on the ASX has all the hallmarks of a “classic, short, sharp bull-market correction.” The falling knife has stuck, and it’s now time to go shopping for bargains. That’s the view of Regal’s veteran market strategist Charlie Aitken, who believes Tuesday’s brutal session was driven by forced selling and deleveraging.

Aitken made his name as a stockbroker in the early 2000s, and his daily Ringing the Bell email quickly became one of the most widely read pieces of market commentary.

These days, Aitken’s notes are far less frequent, but he retains his trademark narrative and table-thumping style. Following the ASX 200’s worst fall since Liberation Day, Aitken has stepped up to argue that stocks have gone on sale and value is emerging.

In a note sent on Wednesday, Aitken told his network:

“Yesterday’s sell-off in Australian equities became indiscriminate. The entire ASX Top 20 was in the red. Not rotation, just a sea of red. That, my friends, is the ‘clearance sale’ of forced selling and deleveraging… exactly what also occurred on April 6th. A classic, short, sharp bull equity market correction.”

Signs of irrational selling

BHP Group shares fell 3.7% on Tuesday despite most commodity prices remaining largely unchanged. Aitken made the point that literally nothing changed with regards to BHP’s profitability or outlook — it was simply caught up in broader weakness across Asian equities.

“Look at BHP Group, for example. Down 3.7% yesterday despite an unchanged iron ore price (US$105/t), unchanged metallurgical coal price (US$195/t), uranium unchanged and copper down 0.6%.”

“BHP is the first ASX Top 20 stock I’d look at this morning.”

Aitken says that, like all good clearance sales, the best bargains will get snapped up first. Beyond BHP, he points to small- and mid-cap industrials, many of which have experienced meaningful de-ratings, as the most likely to rebound the fastest.

“There are widespread examples of growth company share prices being down 25% to 50%, with most likely no change to their underlying earnings growth and no change to the structural GDP+ growth thematic driving their earnings.”

Where Aitken is looking for bargains

While Aitken stopped short of naming specific stocks, his message was clear: the small- and mid-cap industrials have been hit hardest, and that’s where the best opportunities are likely to be found.

He put forward the following sectors and thematics with “structural GDP+ growth tailwinds”:

• Global Defence Spending
• AI Capex Spending (Picks & Shovels)
• The Nuclear Energy Renaissance/Power
• Future-Facing Commodities
• Gold
• Fintech/Crypto
• Family Safety
• Experiences

These areas have also borne the brunt of the recent sell-off - but that’s exactly where Aitken sees opportunity.

“In periods of volatility, the seeds of portfolio alpha are planted.”

A sell-off, or is sentiment shifting?

While many high-growth companies have experienced 25–30% falls from recent highs, Cyan’s Dean Fergie argues many still look richly priced. The table below shows the 20 most expensive industrial stocks above a $500 million market cap, ranked by EV/EBITDA.

(Click image to enlarge on desktop)

These companies have led the charge in 2025, but Fergie’s view is that they remain expensive on traditional valuation metrics. Few of the names - perhaps with the exception of DroneShield - have materially disappointed the market. The selling has been broad-based and indiscriminate.

Fergie believes the recent sell-off marks a broader shift in sentiment and points to Bitcoin, which has fallen 27% from its 2025 high, as a proxy for fading risk appetite. His take is that the market is moving away from the “growth at any price” mindset that dominated the first half of the year. In short, the investors who drove these stocks to extreme valuations were there for a good time, not a long time.

“The worm has definitely turned. Non-emotional and momentum-driven investors will just cut their positions and move on.”

Fergie readily admits he has been watching from the sidelines as many of the stocks listed above continued to defy gravity.

“It seemed like traditional valuation metrics didn’t matter. Now it looks like it does matter because the whole cohort is unwinding.”

Despite the substantial de-rating of these high-flying stocks Fergie is yet to see compelling value on offer. The only name he's been adding to Cyan's portfolio recently is Credit Clear (ASX: CCR), following a UK-based acquisition aimed at substantially increasing the firms' addressable market. 

It pays to be positive

During bouts of volatility, it’s easy to fixate on negative narratives. Aitken argues investors are better served by flipping this thinking on its head and considering what could go right.

US rate cuts may still come through, earnings could remain resilient, commodity prices may surprise to the upside, and the US economy could reaccelerate.

In his view, the balance of positives still outweighs the negatives, and staying fully invested and diversified across asset classes will continue to reward investors.

So far he appears to be right, particularly in light of last night's Nvidia results, which handsomely beat very lofty expectations. The financial world was collectively holding its breath into the release but has now exhaled and hit the buy button once again, with the ASX 200 currently up around 80 points. 

For now, the music is still playing and the party looks set to continue.