Vedanta Resources is a diversified and integrated metals and mining group with annual sales of $1.9bn. Its principal operations are located in India, where it has a major market share in each of our main metals: aluminium, copper, zinc and lead. There are also substantial copper operations in Zambia and 2 copper mines in Australia.

            Red = 25 day moving average.           Green = 200 day moving average.

                        

Copper - (6 month graph)

SALES PER ACTIVITY (Data as of 31/03/2006)

Copper:      60%
Zinc:         24%
Aluminium:  12%
Others:       4%

Copper Rises in London on Speculation China Will Purchase Metal
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By Claudia Carpenter

Jan. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Copper rose in London, erasing this weeks loss, on speculation that Chinas State Reserve Bureau, the countrys stockpiling agency, will purchase the metal amid signs it started buying aluminum.

Aluminum inventory in warehouses monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange declined 18 percent in the past week, the largest decline since April 2007, figures from the exchange today showed. China will build emergency stockpiles of copper and other items to guard against potential supply disruptions, the Ministry of Land and Resources said two days ago.

There was a massive draw in Shanghai aluminum stockpiles and theres some market speculation that might be due to State Reserve buying, said Gayle Berry, an analyst at Barclays Capital in London. If theyre doing it for aluminum, certainly it makes it even more probable well see it for copper.

Copper for delivery in three months jumped $125, or 3.9 percent, to $3,320 a metric ton as of 12:51 p.m. on the London Metal Exchange, for a weekly rise of 2.8 percent. Aluminum fell $1.50 to $1,553.50 a ton, erasing an earlier gain.

The three-month copper contract is up 8.1 percent this year compared with a 1.2 percent increase in the UBS Bloomberg CMCI Index of 26 commodities.

On the LME, copper inventories jumped 5,875 tons to 363,575 tons, the most since Jan. 30, 2004, the exchange said in its daily warehouse report. Copper for March delivery rose 3.5 cents, or 2.4 percent, to $1.514 a pound.

Index Changes

Copper is also benefiting from purchases by index funds as commodity indexes are rebalanced, William Adams, an analyst at BaseMetals.com, wrote in a report today. Changes start today for the Dow Jones AIG Commodity Indexes.

Aluminum will account for 6.99 percent of the index under the new weightings, New York-traded copper 7.3 percent, zinc 3.1 percent and nickel 2.88 percent, Dow Jones-AIG said in August. At the close yesterday, aluminum made up 6.4 percent, copper 4.74 percent, zinc 2.15 percent and nickel 1.64 percent, according to information on the Dow Jones-AIG Web site.

Nickel dropped $145 to $11,400 a ton and zinc increased $14 to $1,249 a ton. Lead gained $35 to $1,184 a ton and tin fell $100 to $11,300 a ton. Lead and tin arent in the Dow Jones-AIG barometers.

To contact the reporter on this story: Claudia Carpenter in London at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net or ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 9, 2009 08:05 EST

i'd leave miners well alone until 2011

Bought this 24/03/09 for 651 sold last week at 1301 waited for it to drop to buy back in but it rose to 1366 this morning dont understand as mining stock has been poor for this week

That's better -):

Excellent trade though from 651 to 1301. Not quite sure what's going on with market at the moment, so your not alone there.

Wish I had hung on a bit longer close today 1539

http://moneyam.uk-wire.com/cgi-bin/articles/200906120700107804T.html

Market not impressed down over 7%.

Down today but still at 1606

Below 16 quid now.. a certain director falling over himself to get in I bet -):

Got to be a good buy now @ 1418 looks very oversold.

FTSE just dipped below 5000 another bloodbath Tuesday

I wonder if this is the turning point for VED? Miners out of favour atm, but VED seems to have a very diverse portfolio of metals & minerals, so not totally dependent on copper (and therefore recent weakness in copper price).
Divi dec & july.

StockMarketWire.com
Vedanta Resources has reported revenue of US$6,553m for the half year to end of September which represents a 43% increase on 2010 numbers.

The company also reported EBITDA of US$1.7 billion, up 27% and underlying EPS of 68 cents, down 35%, due to lower attributable profit from subsidiaries.

Vedanta pointed to a strong free cash flow of US$746 million up 67% and announced an interim dividend of 20 US cents per share.

Anil Agarwal, Chairman of Vedanta Resources plc commented on the year: "Vedanta has delivered strong production growth, successfully integrated the Zinc International assets acquired from Anglo American and acquired over 1 billion tonnes of iron ore reserves and resources in Liberia.

Vedanta, with its significant exposure to fast growing economies and its strong organic investment programme, supplemented by select acquisitions, is well placed and remains confident about the future.

MUMBAI/SYDNEY, Nov 15 (Reuters) India-focused British miner Vedanta Resources is considering a bid for New Hope Corp, the $5 billion Australian coal miner that has put itself up for auction, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.
Vedanta, controlled by Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal, has held discussions with banks and is expected to appoint advisors soon, said the sources, who declined to be named as they were not authorised to speak to the media.
We are yet to begin formal talks, one source told Reuters.
Spokesmen for Vedanta and New Hope were not immediately available for comment.
New Hope is among the last few major coal companies left in resource-rich Australia after a flurry of recent takeovers consolidated the industry.

Proposed Acquisition of a Controlling Stake in Cairn India Limited ("Cairn India")
Vedanta Resources plc ("Vedanta") announces that is has now satisfied the conditions under the Sale and Purchase Agreement for the acquisition of a controlling stake in Cairn India (the "Transaction"). Vedanta and Cairn Energy PLC are working towards the closing of the Transaction and a further announcement will be made in due course.

Cairn India announces commencement of production at Bhagyam

Vedanta Resources plc's subsidiary, Cairn India Limited ("Cairn India") today announced that ONGC and Cairn India (Rajasthan Joint Venture) have commenced production from the Bhagyam Field in Rajasthan. The full text of the release issued by Cairn India is set out below.

19 January 2012

Rajasthan Joint Venture starts oil production in Bhagyam
ONGC and Cairn (Rajasthan Joint Venture) have commenced production from the Bhagyam Field in Rajasthan. Bhagyam is the second largest of 25 discoveries made so far by Cairn in the Barmer Basin in Block RJ-ON-90/1.

The Bhagyam reservoir and facilities will entail a gradual and safe ramp up to reach the currently approved plateau rate of 40,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd). The commissioning of Bhagyam is a key milestone towards achieving the target production rate of 175,000 bopd by end FY 2011-12.

The Mangala, Bhagyam and Aishwariya (MBA) fields have gross recoverable oil reserves and resources of approximately one billion barrels. The Rajasthan Joint Venture will contribute more than 20 percent of current domestic crude production when they reach the currently approved plateau rate of 175,000 bopd.

Thoughts from Simon Griffin of Shares Mag:
"A new Year rally above both the 50-day moving average and a steep bear trend line looks decisive and should set indian mining giant Vedanta Resources (VED) on the way to fresh substantial gains. shares in the FTSE 100 constituent performed exceptionally well as markets began to recapture their poise in early 2009, as they racked up a 650% increase to reach £29.35, exceeding even the high posted in early 2008. That meteoric progress gave way to a period characterised by sideways ranging between £18.30 and £25.50. At the height of last summer support from the lower level finally gave way and renewed weakness took Vedanta down to 933p and the 78.6% retracement of the preceding rise from 384p. That crashing fall wiped two-thirds off the firm’s market cap. support from the fibonacci indicator held and then just last week vedanta started to head higher once more as it confi rmed a move above its 50-day average earlier in the month by breaking above the steeper of two downtrend defi ning trend lines on the daily log scale chart.
Bulls will now look for the shares to reach £12.80 and then head for a test of the shallower bear trend line at £13.60. Beyond that would come £14.10, a site of congestion and strong resistance last autumn that will shortly coincide with the declining 200-day average. This mark also sits just above the 23.6% retracement of the fall from £29.34. farther out, a more impressive rise could result from a sustained rally and a case for a recovery to test evident support and resistance close to £20.80 can be made. only a slip back below £10.60 would question the chart’s bullish leaning."

StockMarketWire.com
Resources giant Vedanta Resources (LON:VED) saw profits dip in the third quarter despite announced record output of silver and lead.

The India-focused miner said earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) came in at $848.4 million for the third quarter, including $131 million from its majority stake in Cairn India, acquired last year.

Zambia, the focus of market attention as Vedanta's listed subsidiaries have already reported, posted results well below market expectations, hit by a drop in production, weaker copper prices and a provision for higher power costs.

The Zambian copper operations posted core earnings of $67.7 million, compared to $134.4 million a year ago.

Aluminium was also badly hit by lower market prices and by the depreciation of the Indian rupee, which forced mark-to-market losses on foreign currency loans. Core profit sank to $3.6 million for the division from $76.3 million a year earlier.

Over the nine months to the end of December, the group's core profit rose 14 percent to $2.6 billion.

Output up but profits down, Miners up in general though so VED go up with them. Over 2% so far.

As per post #186, £20.80 now looking a good possibility.

Media Speculation Regarding Group Structure
Vedanta Resources plc notes media speculation regarding a potential group restructuring. Vedanta's stated strategy is to simplify and consolidate its corporate structure. Management reviews options to deliver this strategy on an ongoing basis and will update the market as appropriate.