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%

Thanks Cynic for your comment - true this one has been hammered over the past five years, like most mines and banks.

I believe that the Indian rupee weakness may work in VED favour, plus they may make some savings on a recent internal structure reorganisation, and the price is lower than of late. Brokers comments also are generally positive, showing good % target increases.

It seems to me to be a strong Company in fair shape. I am not expecting fireworks, but hopeful of this large group giving me a small profit over the next few days.

it certainly won't go belly up and i confess that i too have been disappointed with the performance of the big mining houses of late, even with the clear upturn in world economies ..... copper, nickel and iron ore should have risen, and thus the shares of these miners, but unless i am much mistaken - could check easily enough on Kitco - this just hasn't been the case so far .... surely, in due course, these overhanging physical stocks must disappear and then perhaps we'll see fireworks

Cynic -

Have a look at website .. indexmundi.com ... iron ore has picked up over last two months and other metals seem not to be falling or too weak.
This web site seems to monthly historic so not so useful, but is presently my guide.

I do not know anything about Kitco ... I'll shall have a look at it.

GIC Private Limited
(Formerly known as Government of Singapore Investment Corporation Pte Ltd) go below 3%

Vedanta H1 revenue down 17%, pretax profit slumps 76%!

Merrill's Lynch note:
"We upgrade Vedanta to BUY, price objective of GBp1050, about 30% upside potential. We see VED trading on about 0.75x NPV, towards the bottom end of the typical trading range for diversified miners. We think that shares have de-rated of late on recent concerns on India’s current account deficit, weakening currency and emerging market worries in general. That said, we do see a series of potential positive catalysts on the horizon and also consider the potential for metal prices & premiums to go the “right way” for Vedanta. INR (Rupee) weakness is a tailwind for US$ equivalent costs. We also note share purchases by Volcan investments, the holdco for the Agarwal family which controls Vedanta. Volcan recently bought around 1.1 mil shares (about US$14 mn worth) taking total shareholding in VED to 68.7%.
Key catalysts: 1) Potential buy-in of government stake sales in subsidiaries HZL and Balco, 2) Resumption of iron ore mining and shipments, 3) commissioning of unproductive capital in the group’s aluminium and power business. These catalysts aren’t without their risks, of course. The stake buy-in has been “pending” since we launched coverage of VED in 2005. While the sale of iron ore inventories in Goa looks likely to go ahead near term, “due process” in terms of the court deliberation on iron ore quotas could be more drawn out.
Vedanta’s key products are oil (Cairn India), copper (Konkola), Zinc (Hindustan Zinc) and Aluminium and Power (VAL / Balco). As discussed in our 2014 year-ahead note, we see the potential for copper restocking post the Chinese New Year (i.e. now) leading to higher prices. For aluminium, LME premiums have climbed reflecting tight physical markets. Zinc could be next, in our view. We think that premiums could give an extra boost to Vedanta’s earnings power. For oil, production is broadly according to guidance but we consider that policy in India could evolve positively on concerns on the current account where some 40-50% of imports are oil related."

Looks like at last we have the break up out of the range.

mining stocks are doing strange things at the moment and are even more volatile than usual

my fave remains BLT, though i (foolishly with hindsight) banked a respectable profit on friday

i need to check it out, but i have on fairly good authority that stainless steel prices have gained significantly over the last couple of weeks
i'm not sure whether that is just in $ terms (it's weak) or truly so through increasing demand

A lot of Bullish talk on miners in the US Cyners over last week or so. CNBC is a good online site to follow.

When miners start to go blue we should also be buying banks. The 2 go hand in hand.

Hold Barclays.

Got shot of all my small stuff.

VED rising dtrongly today. Is this a result of the new
government in India? Other miners have not risen that much.

it's been on a fantastic run since early May = + nearly 25%
young sticky highlighted them, and didn't even think of following ...... i wonder if the boy still holds them

Yes indeed I do. If you remember I brought them to the attention of the thread on the Chart thread at the same time I also highlited TED which as also made me a small fortune. Still holding both but have a tight stop as they are approaching slight resistance.

Fingers crossed.

well done old bean cos i recollect you've had a couple of "beasts" too

Yep AAL just the one but I was out very sharpish. DOM recommended by you is my only dog at the moment. KAS looks like its the next miner that could do well.

Dont touch ANTO chinese stocks of copper are very very heavy. Using copper as collateral in china on credit notes and the material is being stock piled.

Shame really because if the World Recover is for real copper is usually the biggest winner or should I say the first sign that global growth is on the move.

oh .... thought i heard a quick weep from you that you had done some VERY serious damage over a 2 week period - though i really would not wish that on you, not even remotely :-)

just because i suggested DOM, it didn't mean you had to follow :-)
it's actually a surprisingly volatile stock and i would want to eat its product, but it's a very good company nevertheless ..... i very much like RTN in that sector too, for similar reasons

KAZ i traded briefly and successfully and have never followed ANTO .... of the miners, i still like BLT, not just because it always sounds a good idea at lunchtime, but because it has a very wide portfoluio

Serious damage.....nah was just a winge at this boring sideways market and yep Im responsible for my own buy re- DOM. Think itl come good any way.

RAT is presently making me some serious money and RR. plus CPI were Ive been given the nod a big contract is on the way are ones im looking at.

Further to my observations on the mining sector bullish breakout yesterday Ive found VED as a WATCH candidate.

VED, miners showing much promise at the moment. As a support line at 1000p which as been hit and bounced off 5 times



what I posted earlier on the 20th of August below......


Further to my observations on the mining sector bullish breakout yesterday Ive found VED as a WATCH candidate.

VED

UPGRADE UPGRADE UPGRADE UPGRADE UPGRADE UPGRADE

03 Sep 2014 Vedanta Resources... VED Deutsche Bank Buy 1,097.50 1,060.00 1,250.00 1,250.00 Upgrades

SP TARGET 1250p

Barclays note today:

"Highlights from the release
· Oil & gas: production fell 11% QoQ (-7% YoY) at Rajasthan, reflecting the planned 10-day maintenance shutdown at the Mangala Processing Terminal as highlighted in the Q1 release.

· HZL production recovered from a weak first quarter (+28% QoQ but -8% YoY) and should continue to improve in H2. Zinc International was weak due to unplanned maintenance activities at Skorpion and lower grades at Lisheen.

· Copper Zambia: Konkola continues to be impacted by low equipment availability and shaft interruptions while Nchanga operations were impacted by lower grades and temporary power restriction in September. Integrated production fell 4% QoQ (-25% YoY). The operation is implementing various interventions to improve the overall operating performance and these are progressing well.

· Aluminium: production increased 9% QoQ (+11% YoY) while alumina production operated above 90% of capacity (-3% QoQ, +95% YoY). The company noted low coal availability which has impacted power purchases at Korba and expect these issues to continue. 84 pots at Korba-II were started but ramp-up to full capacity awaits final regulatory approvals for the 1200MW power plant to be commissioned. Start-up at the 1.25mtpa Jharsuguda plant has also commenced. The company awaits further government action to deal with the coal block that was cancelled in September 2014.

· Iron ore production and sales were up QoQ, but the Karnataka operations were halted in August 2014 to await forest clearance and mining lease renewal, which is expected in Q3. The company still expects to recover to the cap rate of 2.29mt by year-end. Goa mining is expected to commence in Q4-15.

· Power: power sales increased 9% YoY but was lower QoQ (-22% QoQ) as the PLF dropped to 38% from 45% in Q1.
We remain cautious on Vedanta due to expensive near-term valuation multiples, high debt, M&A risk, ongoing operational difficulties across the business and misleading cash flow multiples (e.g. over half of attributable FCF is generated by HZL). The investment case continues to be a long-dated turnaround story waiting to happen, in our view, with significant ‘latent capacity’ across many areas of the business. However, we believe due to operational and regulatory constraints, this is unlikely to be unleashed in the short term. Given still-high gearing and expensive valuation (e.g. trading on CY15 PERs of 17.1x and 55.4x on spot) we believe investors can afford to wait.
We remain Underweight."