September has come and gone and we are now into the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO)'s 10th month of the year.
And as it turns out, September wasn't a particularly lucrative month to have been invested in ASX 200 shares. From the start of the month to the end, the ASX 200 ended up going backwards by around 2.6%, falling from 7,534.9 points to 7,332.2 points by the end of the month.
Needless to say, there were many ASX 200 shares that went backwards over this period. But not all of them. So here are the 5 best performing ASX 200 resources shares for the month. As you can see, some of these companies did a whole lot better than the broader markets last month.
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The 5 best performing ASX 200 resources in September
Beach Energy Ltd (ASX: BPT)
Beach Energy is our first ASX 200 resources share to check out. This energy share spent September in a fairly volatile mood. But even so, Beach shares had an explosive month, rising from approximately $1.05 at the end of August to close out the month of September at $1.50 a share. That's a rise of 42.86%.
Since Beach is primarily an oil driller, we can probably put this performance down to the stellar run crude oil prices went on over the month. WTI crude oil was hitting more than US$75 a barrel just last week, helping to boost ASX oil companies like Beach.
Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX: WHC)
From oil to coal, and Whitehaven was another ASX 200 beneficiary of a strong resources market over the month just gone.
Whitehaven shares ended August at $2.53 a share. But by the time September was wrapping up last week, this miner's share price had risen to $3.23. That's a month-on-month gain of 27.67%.
As with Beach, we can point to the underlying surge in the price of coal as Whitehaven's source of strength.
Woodside Petroleum Limited (ASX: WPL)
Let's turn to another ASX 200 oil company, Woodside Petroleum. Woodside was also a beneficiary of higher crude oil pricing over September.
This oil company ended up rising by a very healthy 22.5% from $19.49 a share at the start of the month to $23.88 by the end. Predictions of $US90-a-barrel oil by the end of the year over the month just gone no doubt helped.
Santos Ltd (ASX: STO)
Another ASX 200 energy share to enjoy a good month was Santos. It experienced a nice uptick in investor sentiment thanks to a bullish oil market over the month.
The company started September at $6.05 a share but was trading at $7.17 by the end of the month. That's a rise of 18.5%.
Alumina Limited (ASX: AWC)
Our final ASX 200 resources share that exceeded expectations in September is the alumina and aluminium producing company Alumina.
Alumina began September trading at $1.78 a share. But by the end of the month, AWC shares had hit $2.10 apiece, a rise of 17.98%.
Once more, we can point to robust commodity markets for the source of investors' optimism with this company. Like oil and coal, aluminium and alumina had an exceptionally strong month. As my Fool colleague Zach mentioned at the time, the price of aluminium was up around 44% year to date in 2021 by mid-September. No wonder investors were fighting to get a hold of this company's shares at the same time.
