First shareholders meeting for EDL.Gen

First shareholders meeting for EDL.Gen

It was a big turnaround last week for the local stock market with a return to robust volumes and turnover. Two important dates for investors this week are:

• Today (Monday) marks the date for EDL.Gen's first ever shareholders meeting starting at 9am at Don Chan Palace. A good attendance is expected and it could impact on today's turnover, with lower turnover and trading at the Vientiane LSX stock exchange. EDL.Gen half yearly dividend to June 30 is due to be paid on Oct. 28. The shareholders' meeting has a packed agenda and may motivate and inspire investors to acquire more of the company's stock.

• On Friday Oct 7 the stock exchange will be closed for Bank of the Lao PDR Foundation Day.

The Lao stock exchange last week closed with its best week in volumes for three months. The exchange finally redeemed its liquidity last week, all of which was continually eroded from July until Sept. 2. However, during September the exchange staged a great recovery, as the turnover continued to climb every day. Today's chart features how good September was and the third quarter turnaround monthly recovery comparing July to September. Investors will be looking hard at the prices of the two local stocks when the market opens.

EDL remained at its discounted 4,400 kip per share on Friday and BCEL closed at 7,550 kip per share, but both stocks had their best week for the quarter as far as volumes trading went.

Traders short copper as Minmetals snaps up Anvil Mining for HK$10b

The share market last Friday ended what was another volatile week on a flat note, despite attempting a rally in early trade. Over the course of the month of September, most exchanges worldwide lost 7 to 10 pct. Comex December gold price near US$1,621 an ounce on Friday, September 30.

Minmetals Resources Ltd, a unit of state-owned China Minmetals Group, agreed to buy Democratic Republic of Congo copper producer Anvil Mining Ltd. (AVM) for HK$10 billion (US$1.3 billion) to help source supply for China, the biggest consumer. China has spent US$17 billion so far in 2011 in buying mines to secure supply to feed its industrial growth. China is snapping up deposits in Africa. Anvil may produce 60,000 tonnes of copper cathode annually from next year.

Minmetals Resources, led by Australian Andrew Michelmore, is taking advantage of the global market rout that has wiped 29 percent off the copper price since a February high. There have been US$11.2 billion copper mining takeovers so far this year, compared with a total of US$12.4 billion last year, according to Bloomberg. The biggest copper takeover was Barrick's acquisition of Equinox.

Copper, which reached a record US$10,190 on the London Metal Exchange in February, sank to US$6,800 on Sept. 26, a 14-month low. Copper finished last week at US$7,091. The metal is trending towards its second-worst year in almost a quarter century, exceeded only by a 54 percent retreat in 2008. This past week was the biggest rout in copper since the global recession drove copper survey analysts to amend their forecasts by -16 percent in a week as mounting concern about growth eroded expectations for supply shortages. The metal may drop as much as another 10 percent to US$6,500 a metric ton by Dec. 31 2011, according to Bloomberg's website. That estimate is a big drop as it was US$7,773 only one week ago.

vientiane times