2024-02-22 07:13

MUMBAI/SINGAPORE, Feb 22 (Reuters) - News and some currency trading platforms run by the London Stock Exchange Group went down briefly on Thursday just as European markets opened, suggesting a wider outage at the firm, market sources said. LSEG's Eikon and Workspace market data platforms and its interbank foreign exchange matching systems FXT and FXall were not functioning, traders in India and Singapore said. By 7am GMT, most market sources said systems were back to normal, after being down for between half an hour to 45 minutes. It was not immediately clear if the London Stock Exchange, also an LSEG (LSEG.L) , opens new tab business, was affected. However, its website status page said all systems were running normally. Thomson Reuters (TRI.TO) , opens new tab the parent company of Reuters News, holds a minority stake in LSEG. LSEG's flagship Workspace product, which provides financial and real-time data and news, including exclusive access to Reuters News, is the largest division at the data and analytics unit. https://www.reuters.com/technology/london-stock-exchange-group-suffers-outage-with-news-trading-platforms-down-2024-02-22/

2024-02-22 06:56

SYDNEY, Feb 22 (Reuters) - More than two thousand people have been ordered to evacuate from towns in the west of Australia's Victoria state due to a bushfire burning out of control on Thursday. The state emergency service urged residents in the towns of Raglan and Beaufort, home to around two thousand people, and those in surrounding areas to leave while it was still safe and head east to the nearby regional hub of Ballarat, 95 kms (59 miles) west of Melbourne. Roughly 50 square kms (12,355 acres) is ablaze northwest of Ballarat. A similar area is also burning out of control further to the west. State Premier Jacinta Allan said more than 1,000 firefighters were on the ground, supported by 24 aircraft and more than 100 vehicles. More are set to join the fight soon. "Leaving immediately is the safest option for those communities," she said at a news conference. "If you are located in these areas, please heed this advice, please act now to save your own life." Officials said no property damage had been reported but it was too soon for an accurate picture. Large swathes of the state are on high alert for fires and the Bureau of Meteorology on Thursday issued extreme fire danger warnings for several districts due to hot, dry winds and the potential for thunderstorms. The fires west of Ballarat are expected to worsen throughout the evening until around midnight, when the winds will begin to slow, Jason Heffernan, chief officer of the Country Fire Authority, told the news conference. Temperatures were above 40 degrees Celsius (104° Fahrenheit) in the north west of the state at 3.00pm (0400 GMT). https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/thousands-ordered-flee-while-they-can-bushfire-burns-australias-south-2024-02-22/

2024-02-22 06:55

MADRID, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Spanish oil company Repsol (REP.MC) , opens new tab will hand shareholders up to 10 billion euros ($10.84 billion) via dividends and buybacks in the next three years. The Spanish firm joins other big oil companies offering record returns to shareholders despite a steep decline in profit from record levels in 2022, when oil and gas prices soared following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Repsol, whose market value was 16.7 billion euros ($18.11 billion) at Wednesday's close, pledged to buy back up to 5.4 billion euros in shares through 2027. In addition, shareholders will get 4.6 billion euros in cash dividends. The company raised the dividend paid from 2023 results by almost 30% to 0.90 euros a share. Repsol's fourth-quarter adjusted profit fell less than expected, as oil and gas prices cooled but oil and gas production outperformed forecasts. Quarterly adjusted profit was 1.20 billion euros, down from 2.04 billion euros a year earlier, but beating the company-provided average forecast of 1 billion euros. The Spanish firm will also cancel 40 million shares by the end of July. At Wednesday's closing price, the shares are worth 547 million euros. ($1 = 0.9228 euros) ($1 = 0.9221 euros) https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/repsol-hikes-dividend-by-nearly-30-2024-02-22/

2024-02-22 06:49

H1 underlying profit drops, but beats consensus view Co takes A$171.8 mln impairment hit on WA nickel operations Declares 11 Australian cents/share interim dividend MELBOURNE, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Australia's IGO Ltd (IGO.AX) , opens new tab reported interim underlying profit ahead of analysts' expectation on Thursday, even as the battery metal producer reeled from falling prices of key commodities, and said it did not have plans to further trim production. Shares of IGO gained nearly 3% to A$7.27 by 2338 GMT, while the benchmark index (.AXJO) , opens new tab was trading slightly lower. Underlying profit came in at A$454.4 million ($297.90 million) for the first half of the financial year ended Dec. 31, compared with A$613.9 million a year earlier. That beat Visible Alpha's consensus estimate of A$440 million. IGO recorded an impairment charge of A$171.8 million for its Cosmos and Forrestania nickel assets in Western Australia owing to a sharp drop in prices, adding to a nearly A$1 billion write-down in 2023. The company put its Cosmos nickel project into care and maintenance in January when it also trimmed its annual lithium production forecast by 100,000 metric tons to between 1.3 million metric tons and 1.4 million metric tons as a way to manage stockpiles following a reduction in sales to electric vehicle battery makers. IGO warned costs would rise by A$50 per ton to A$330-A$380 per ton for its Greenbushes lithium mine in Western Australia, in line with analyst estimates. "We expect a neutral reaction to the result; higher costs at Greenbushes were expected by the market," Citi analysts said. IGO is intent on cutting costs at Greenbushes, which it co-owns with China's Tianqi and Albemarle Corp (ALB.N) , opens new tab, CEO Ivan Vella said, as part of a strategy refresh that has been underway since Vella started in the top job in December. "It's a world class ore body. Is it a world class mining operation? It seems at Talison ... there is more to do." Vella added there were currently no plans to defer growth at the mine despite falling prices, with a third ore processing plant on track to start commissioning next year. Timing of a fourth ore processing plant at Greenbushes, expected to start commissioning in 2027, may be adjusted, he said. IGO continues to face problems at the Kwinana lithium hydroxide refinery (002466.SZ) , opens new tab it owns with Tianqi and a focus on improving its outcome is part of IGO's strategic review. Production of lithium hydroxide at Kwinana stood at 1,224 tons for the half year, compared with 779 tons a year earlier. That was well behind its nameplate capacity , opens new tab of 24,000 tons. The company declared an interim dividend of 11 Australian cents per share, down from 14 Australian cents paid last year. ($1 = 1.5253 Australian dollars) (This story has been corrected to say that annual lithium production forecast was trimmed by 100,000 metric tons to between 1.3 million metric tons and 1.4 million metric tons, not 1,300 metric tons to 1,400 metric tons, in paragraph 5) https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/australia-lithium-producer-igo-beats-profit-shares-up-2024-02-22/

2024-02-22 06:32

Feb 22 (Reuters) - South Africa's Gold Fields (GFIJ.J) , opens new tab on Thursday raised its 2024 gold output forecast to between 2.33 million and 2.4 million ounces, saying it expects a rapid production ramp-up at its new Salares Norte mine in Chile, which comes online in April. The Johannesburg-based miner is racing to start production at Salares Norte after several delays, and after its output last year dipped due to production decreases at its operations in Ghana and South Africa. Construction of the $1 billion mine in Chile started in 2020 with production initially expected early in 2023. However, the mine has missed several targets due to delays caused by COVID-19 and bad weather. Salares Norte, which is key to Gold Fields' long-term goal of raising output to about 2.8 million ounces annually, is expected to produce 250,000 ounces of gold this year, before ramping up to 580,000 ounces in 2025. Gold Fields CEO Mike Fraser, who took up the post to head the company in January, told Reuters there was "a high degree of confidence" the Chilean mine would rapidly ramp up output. "We're well positioned because we've already got about 520,000 ounces of gold sitting on stockpile. The mining operations have worked really well, we're just now closing out the pre-commissioning and commissioning of the processing plant," Fraser said. Gold Fields posted a 21% decline in headline earnings to $837 million in the year ended December 2023, down from $1.06 billion the previous year, on the back of a dip in output and higher costs. Its attributable gold production of 2.304 million ounces was 4% lower than the previous year's, while all-in-sustaining costs - an industry measure - rose 17% to $1,295 per ounce. Gold Fields' 2023 earnings also came off a higher base after its 2022 income was boosted by a $202 million break fee it received after its failed bid to acquire Canada's Yamana Gold. The company declared a final dividend of 4.20 rand ($0.2222) per share, bringing the total for the year to 7.45 rand. ($1 = 18.9051 rand) https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/gold-fields-raises-output-forecast-ahead-start-chile-mine-2024-02-22/

2024-02-22 06:26

Feb 22 (Reuters) - Canadian miner Teck Resources (TECKb.TO) , opens new tab beat fourth-quarter profit estimates on Thursday, helped by an increase in steelmaking coal sales and record copper production. The company also benefited from higher copper prices due to supply shortages, which Teck said have accelerated into next quarter. Teck said its realized copper prices rose 2% and it reported a 58% surge in copper production to 103,400 tonnes in the fourth quarter from a year earlier. Higher production was reported at its Quebrada Blanca mine in Chile and Highland Valley Copper and Antamina mines in Canada and Peru. Total adjusted profit came in at C$1.40 per share for the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with analysts' estimate of C$1.33 per share, according to LSEG data. For the full-year, Teck expects copper production between 465,000 and 540,000 tonnes, above 296,500 tonnes produced in 2023. Steelmaking coal sales surged 42% to 6.1 million tonnes in the October-December quarter. Production in the unit is expected between 24.0 and 26.0 million tonnes in 2024, compared with 23.7 million tonnes a year earlier. The miner said on Thursday the steelmaking coal market would remain in deficit in the first quarter amid strong demand from Southeast Asia and India. In November, a Glencore-led (GLEN.L) , opens new tab group agreed to buy Teck's steelmaking coal unit for $9 billion and the deal is expected to close in the third quarter. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/teck-resources-beats-fourth-quarter-profit-estimates-2024-02-22/