Tag Archives: copper

Stock market: Tethys, Nostrum, GHG

NOV. 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Oil producers suffered in the London stock market this week, due to mixed industrial announcements.

Tethys Petroleum shares lost 13% in one week closing at 4.25p on Friday. Nostrum Oil & Gas was on track to a similar fall after it lost 9% on Monday, recovering later in the week after it showed its investment plans for a new gas treatment facility. On Friday, Nostrum closed at 376p, down 3.5%. Roxi Petroleum shares closed at 7.75p on Friday, down 5% from last week.

Central Asia Metals lost 2.2% this week to close at 161.5p on Friday, while the other major miner in Kazakhstan, KAZ Minerals, gained 7.8% to 99.8p.

Newly-listed Georgia Healthcare Group lost around 2% this week to close at 177p on Friday.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

KAZ Minerals invest in Kazakh copper

NOV. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — KAZ Minerals, the Kazakh copper producer, plans to build two hydro- metallurgical processing plants in Zhezkazgan, central Kazakhstan, to extract more copper from low value, media reported. The combined project will cost around $30m. KAZ Minerals is one of Kazakhstan’s most important companies and has been linked to the elite.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)

Stock market: KAZ Minerals, Centerra Gold

NOV. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — On the stock markets, KAZ Minerals, formerly called Kazakhmys, was one of the biggest movers.

Its share price rose from 80p to 92p — a two-week high, apparently off the back of news that it will restructure some of its costs.

On the Canada stock market, shares in Centerra Gold recovered from a six-month low of 6.95 Canadian dollars after its core asset, the Kumtor gold mine in Kyrgyzstan announced better-than-expected results.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)

Stock market: GHG, Nostrum, KAZ Minerals

NOV. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — As the Bulletin reports on its front page, Georgia Healthcare Group (GHG) listed on the London Stock Exchange with an initial share price of 170p on Nov. 9. The company listed 29% of its shares, valuing the company around £218m ($331m). By Friday its shares had dropped to 181p.

Oil and commodities companies lost ground on the London stock market after Brent and copper prices fell by 6% and 4.5% this week.

Linked to this fall in the price of Brent crude futures, Kazakhstan-focused Nostrum Oil & Gas shares were down 16% closing at 367.5p. Nostrum recorded an 8% fall on Thursday, placing its shares among the worst performers on the FTSE 250.

Cooper producer KAZ Minerals, formerly known as Kazakhmys, faired worse. Its shares fell by 20% over the week, closing at 80p.

Tethys Petroleum shares jumped by 53% on Monday following Olisol’s letter of intent to acquire its stakes, but finished the week down to 4.25p.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

Stock market: Roxi Petroleum, KAZ Minerals

NOV. 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Stock markets saw commodities-focused companies lose terrain this week, despite a brief surge in oil prices above $50/barrel on Tuesday.

Kazakhstan-focused oil company Roxi Petroleum lost 16% in one week closing at 7.88p, perhaps driven down by technical issues slowing down its drilling operations at the BNG contract area in the western part of the country.

After peaking at 122.4p on Tuesday, mining company KAZ Minerals shares were down 8.5% to 105.7p on Friday. KAZ Minerals used to be called Kazakhmys.

In Toronto, Centerra Gold shares lost 3.5% to 7.15 Canadian dollars, continuing a 3-week slump following debates on the formation of a new government in Kyrgyzstan. The Kumtor gold mine in Kyrgyzstan is Centerra’s main asset and the company is a major taxpayer in the country. Centerra has said, though, that production at Centerra would be down this year on earlier forecasts.

A new government has now been formed in Kyrgyzstan, hopefully giving Centerra a stable partner to work with.

Shares in Bank of Georgia were down 4.5% to £19.11 on Friday.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)

Kazakh miner to hit target

OCT. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — London-listed miner KAZ Minerals, formerly known as Kazakhmys, said it is on track to meet its production targets for 2015, despite a slight fall in production during the first nine months of the year. KAZ Minerals also said that it had increased its net debt by 18.8% to $1.9b in Q3. The company may be bullish on output at its copper and zinc mines in Kazakhstan but it has been hit by a fall in commodity prices.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Stock market: Centerra Gold, KAZ Minerals

OCT. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The US Federal Reserve Bank’s hinted that interest rates could be increased in December, hitting stock markets worldwide. South Caucasus- and Central Asia-related shares were no exception.

Miners were hit badly. Kyrgyzstan- focused Centerra Gold saw its shares lose over 9% in Toronto this week, closing at 7.36 Canadian dollars on Friday.

KAZ Minerals shares were also down 9%, closing at 116p on Friday.

After announcing it would pay a dividend to its shareholders on Oct. 30, Central Asia Metals reversed a slow start and closed on Friday, with a marginal positive growth, at 163p/share in London.

Oil and gas producers also suffered, despite oil prices gaining 2% this week with Brent crude closing at $49.5/barrel. Kazakhstan-focused Tethys Petroleum and Nostrum Oil & Gas both lost around 10% this week.

After reaching an 8-month high at £21.35/share last Friday, London-listed Bank of Georgia fell by 6.5% to £20.00. Last week its shares rallied after a healthcare group it holds a large stake in announced an IPO price range that valued the company at around $500m.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Stock market: Nostrum, Tethys, KAZ Minerals

OCT. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Oil companies suffered from a fall in oil prices this week. The Brent index closed at $48/barrel on Friday, down 5% this week.

Nostrum Oil & Gas lost around 9% this week, recovering on Friday to end at 475p per share in London. Nostrum’s summer objective Tethys Petroleum continued its slump, reaching the lowest level in 2015 on Oct. 22, trading at 0.06 Canadian dollars per share in Toronto on Thursday, rebounding slightly to 0.07 Canadian dollars on Friday. Kazakhstan-focused Roxi Petroleum gained 2%, after it issued new shares earlier in October. Roxi closed at 9.63p on Friday.

Last week, the price of copper fell by 2% before recovering to $2.40 per lb. Britain-based miner KAZ Minerals was hit by the market crunch this week and recorded a 7% loss, closing at 127p in London on Friday.

The upside was represented by Centerra Gold, whose shares gained almost 9% despite slower gold production in Kyrgyzstan. The final price in Toronto was 8.28 Canadian dollars.

In the banking sector, Bank of Georgia rose by almost 7% this week to 214p. The stability of the lari currency kept the market optimistic.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Stock market: KAZ Minerals, Nostrum, KEGOC

OCT. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The biggest mover in the stock markets for Central Asia and the South Caucasus was London-listed KAZ Minerals, which gained a staggering 65% since the beginning of October at 145p on Friday. Its performance was in line with most commodity producers which were hit by the Glencore slump last week.

Kazakhstan-focused Nostrum Oil & Gas was stable this week at around 524 pence, after rebounding from a sharp drop last week. Its failed takeover offer for Tethys Petroleum affected its performance in the market.

Polyus Gold continued its roller- coaster to end the week at 198 pence. Polyus has shown a volatility of +/- 3% over the past three weeks.

In local markets, KEGOC, Kazakhstan’s state-owned electricity company became one of the strongest players in KASE, gaining over 25% in the past three weeks. However, because its stocks are denominated in tenge, the value of its assets has not fared as well as it seems. Speculative moves behind the multi-million dollar transactions of the past weeks have turned KEGOC into an appealing investment in a market marred with worsening assets.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Rout on commodities-based companies hits KAZ Minerals

ALMATY, SEPT. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — KAZ Minerals’ shares in London lost a fifth of their value over the past week as concerns about future commodities prices continued to stalk the market and copper prices fell to near 6-year lows.

Globally, Switzerland-based Glencore was the biggest loser in September with around $14b wiped off its market cap. The market pushed down Glencore shares mainly because of worries over its large debt pile but the sell-off still pressured other commodities-orientated companies including miners in the South Caucasus and Central Asia.

And the drop in commodities prices it also a sovereign issue in Central Asia and the South Caucasus with national budgets partially reliant on income from sales. This will hurt Kazakhstan in particular, although it will reverberate across the region.

Analysts were quick to point the finger at weak Chinese demand for commodities, especially copper, for the drop in prices. Copper is regarded as a good conductor of electricity and heat and used widely in manufacturing.

“With China slowing down and a lot of uncertainty, fears in the market have intensified, and the reduction in the pace of demand growth for all commodities has seemed to send everybody off the cliff,” Ed Hirs, professor of energy economics at the University of Houston told Bloomberg.

China uses more than half of world’s copper production and any fluctuation in its demand curve has significant effects in the markets. A strong US dollar and uncertainty over Fed interest rate decisions has also hit commodities prices.

London-listed KAZ Minerals, formerly known as Kazakhmys, is particularly exposed to Chinese copper demand whims. Its main product is copper and China is one of its main clients.

Shares in KAZ Minerals were down 20.5% in one week closing at 84.65p, its lowest ever price. It later rebounded above 90p, due to a wave of short-term rebounds across the sector.

KAZ Minerals/Kazakhmys has been portrayed as a company closely interlinked with the elite in Kazakhstan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)