Yahoo Finance Trending tickers: Rio Tinto | Antofagasta | Anglo American | Glencore
A look at the top FTSE 100 risers on Tuesday
Rio Tinto (RIO.L)
Rio Tinto was leading the gains on the FTSE 100 (^FTSE) on Tuesday with mining stocks in favour among investors.
Shares in the Anglo-Australian company, which is the world's second-largest metals and mining corporation, rose 3.66% to 5,488.00.
The group announced last week that it was engaging with investors to support the decarbonisation of its operations, in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
“The discussions have highlighted the need for greater transparency and conversation on the critical role of government policy signals in decarbonisation by creating the right framework for change in hard to abate industrial value chains, coupled with real business action and societal shifts,” a company statement said.
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Jakob Stausholm, Rio Tinto’s chief executive, also announced plans last month to strengthen the company's partnerships in China. At the China Development Forum in Beijing, he said the country accounted for more than half of Rio Tinto's global revenue in 2022.
As a result of its links to China, the company had to cut its dividend in February after posting a 38% drop in annual profit, impacted by the weaker iron ore prices as demand from China slowed due to strict COVID-19 rules curtailing economic activity.
Despite new data released on Tuesday indicating that China’s demand weakness persists, Stausholm said he was confident China will make a significant contribution to global economic growth again this year.
Antofagasta (ANTO.L)
Chilean copper miner Antofagasta was also top of the basket on Tuesday with shares up 3.28% to 1,528.75 — also suggesting that investors were not put off by China's weak economic data hurting demand.
Copper usage is expected to increase in the global move toward green energy and electrification.
“The United States passed the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022 and the European Union recently announced its Net Zero Industry Act. Together they promise to spur further investment in the many copper-intensive products and technologies integral to a net-zero world. And in November 2022, COP27 took place in Egypt, drawing further attention and commitments from governments to a net-zero future,” Jean-Paul Luksic, chairman of Antofagasta, said in the company’s latest annual report.
The company’s strategy remains focused on copper, primarily in the Americas, and it continues to pursue growth in the mineral resources of its Los Pelambres and Centinela mines in Chile.
It said two of its current projects — the Los Pelambres Desalination Plant and Concentrator Expansion — will increase annual copper production to approximately 900,000 tonnes.
Anglo American (AAL.L)
Shares in British mining company Anglo American were up 3.17% to 2,684.50.
On 4 April, the group announced plans with Swedish hydrogen and steel producer H2 Green Steel to work on the advancement of low carbon steelmaking processes.
“The agreement includes studying and trialling the use of premium quality iron ore products from Anglo American’s Kumba mines in South Africa and Minas-Rio mine in Brazil as feedstock for H2 Green Steel’s direct reduced iron (DRI) production process at its Boden plant in Sweden,” a company statement said.
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Underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) fell 30% compared to 2021, which reflected inflationary headwinds and higher energy prices combined with lower production volumes which, together, lifted its production costs, according to the company's recently released preliminary results for 2022.
however, the company remained optimistic on its growth forecast.
“The fundamental demand picture for future-enabling metals and minerals — particularly those that are responsibly sourced with traceable provenance — is ever more compelling…as most of the world’s major economies accelerate their decarbonisation efforts and as the global population increases and continues to urbanise, we aim to keep growing the value of our business into that demand,” it said in a statement.
Glencore (GLEN.L)
Continuing the mining stock trend on the FTSE, shares in Glencore rose 2.96% to 470.93.
It comes as Reuters reported on Tuesday that Glencore’s boss was meeting with some of Teck Resources' Canadian shareholders in Toronto on Thursday to personally lobby them to support Glencore's proposed takeover of the copper and zinc miner after Teck rejected an approach from the firm.
“The prospect of mega deals in the mining space has got investors excited, bringing a new lease of life to the sector which had previously been suffering from fears about weaker economic activity feeding through to reduced commodities demand,” Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell, said.
Hewson also noted that Teck’s board had said it wasn’t contemplating a sale of the business at this time — but said “there is a price for everything” and so it all boiled down to how much Glencore was prepared to pay.
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