Metals and mining firms enjoyed a day in the sun, dragging the FTSE 100 higher. But for Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich it was a trading session best forgotten.
For his company Evraz plc (LON:EVR), Swiss-based but listed here in London, saw 11% wiped for its share price.
As an owner of 31% of the steel exporter this bit a £48mln chunk from his personal fortune.
Okay, that’s a very small 'chunk' for a man whose net worth is put at £6bn, but more than enough to buy the Blues a new centre forward – even at today’s inflated transfer prices.
Evraz blamed poor steel prices and an oversupplied market as it posted a 28% fall in first half revenues to US$3.5bln, while net profit collapsed to US$7mln from US$19mln in the first six months of 2015.
Slowing global demand, in particular from China, has seen the price of steel dip over the past year or so, although it has shown signs of life recently.
Copper producer KAZ Minerals PLC (LON:KAZ), by contrast, said 2016 is shaping up to be “a very exciting year” after delivering a first-half pre-tax profit of US$91mln, up from the US$2mln a year earlier.
Investors agreed as the shares were marked 11% higher.
Underlying earnings for the six months to the end of June rose by a third to US$115mln, beating analyst expectations.
Revenues were down largely because of the declining copper price, although a 34% reduction in cost of sales helped to offset.
KAZ was upbeat about the future of copper price, insisting that it “remain[s] positive on the medium term outlook” for the metal, a view that helped to boost sentiment towards other copper stocks.
The apparent upturn in the copper market had a knock-on impact on firms further down the evolutionary chain, including Central Asia Mining PLC (LON:CAML), whose share price rose 2%.
But it was the big boys that moved the index of blue-chip shares.
BHP Billiton plc (LON:BLT), Antofagasta PLC (LON:ANTO), Glencore International PLC (LON:GLEN) and Anglo American PLC (LON:AAL) were higher on Thursday following the releases of the Federal Reserve’s July policy meeting minutes yesterday evening.
The sector had suffered in yesterday’s trading as traders waited on the minutes to see if they would reveal any clues about a potential US interest rate rise.
The US dollar weakened after the minutes shows that policymakers were divided over whether or not to raise interest rates, which was a slightly more dovish attitude than had been expected.
This helped to support commodity-related stocks, such as miners, as dollar-denominated commodities became cheaper to foreign currencies.
"We've had some comments in the minutes from the Federal Reserve last night which ... were slightly more dovish than expected,” said Jonathan Roy, advisory investment manager at Charles Hanover investment.
“It's actually caused a bit of relief there because there were some fears that they were going to hike rates before the market's ready.”