FTSE 100 Round-Up: Rio Tinto, Hargreaves Lansdown

FTSE 100 shares Hargreaves Lansdown and Rio Tinto have released fresh market updates in midweek trading. Here are the key takeaways from their latest statements.

Rio Tinto

Diversified miner Rio Tinto said that it expects iron ore shipments to reach the higher end of estimates in 2023 following “further momentum” at its Pilbara iron ore business.

The firm has predicted full-year iron ore shipments of between 320 million tonnes and 335 million tonnes from its Australian operations this year. That’s up from 322 million tonnes in 2022.

Production of the steelmaking ingredient rose 7% in the first half, to 160.5 million tonnes. Iron ore shipments rose by the same percentage to 161.7 million tonnes.

The miner said that “the ramp-up of Gudai-Darri continued to plan with the mine reaching its nameplate capacity on a sustained basis during the second quarter.” Second-quarter iron ore output rose 2% from the prior three-month period, to 81.3 million tonnes.

However, iron ore shipments dropped 4% quarter-on-quarter to 79.1 million tonnes. Rio Tinto said this was due to maintenance at the Dampier port and a train derailment.

Aluminium production at the company jumped 9% in the first half to 1.6 million tonnes thanks to ramp ups at its Kitimat smelter. The business kept its full-year guidance on hold at between 3.1 million and 3.3 million tonnes. It produced 3 million tonnes of the lightweight metal last year.

However, Rio Tinto cut its full-year alumina guidance to between 7.4 million and 7.7 million tonnes, from 7.7 million to 8 million tonnes previously. It said this was due to issues at its Queensland Alumina Limited that caused first-half output to drop 1% year on year, to 3.7 million tonnes.

The FTSE firm said the downgrade reflects work to improve plant stability and production rates following unscheduled downtime in recent months. Alumina output came in at 7.5 million tonnes in 2022.

Copper production meanwhile dropped 1% in the first half to 290,000 tonnes, Rio Tinto said. This was due to operational issues at its Kennecott and Escondida projects.

But Rio Tinto added that production ramp-ups at its Oyu Tolgoi underground copper mine were progressing “ahead of plan.” The company therefore kept its full-year copper estimates unchanged at 590,000 to 640,000 tonnes. It produced 521,000 tonnes of the red metal last year.

Hargreaves Lansdown

Financial services business Hargreaves Lansdown announced net new business of £1.7 billion between April and June. That was up 6% from the previous three months but down from £1.8 billion a year earlier.

Meanwhile, closing assets under administration for the company’s fourth fiscal quarter edged 2% higher, to £134 billion. This reflected positive market movements totalling £300 million as well as that uptick in new business.

Net client growth stood at 13,000 to take the total north of 1.8 million, Hargreaves Lansdown said. There was also a 70-basis-point improvement in client retention which increased to 92%.

The firm said that net business increased in quarter four “as clients focused on utilising their ISA and SIPP tax allowances, particularly in the final days of the 2023 tax year and the start of the 2024 tax year.”

Investor activity usually picks up ahead of the April 5 tax deadline as people seek to maximise their ISA and SIPP allowances for that year.

However, Hargreaves Lansdown said that share dealing volumes averaged 685,000 per day in the quarter, down 11% from the January to March period. Volumes were also down 12% year on year.

The company said that this downturn reflected “low” investor confidence with “cost-of-living issues, rising interest rates and market volatility impacting deal volumes.”

Royston Wild owns shares in Rio Tinto.