Copper slump bites

Oriental Metals (Holdings) Co says poor world copper prices caused it to record a loss of $32.69 million in the six month to June 30.

Earlier this year it was revealed a rogue Sumitomo copper trader had created a false market in copper futures, further aggravating the poor performance of the commodity.

The company posted an interim profit of $40.38 million last year.

There was an exceptional loss of $40.71 million from selling a 20.57 per cent stake in Jinhui and $4.5 million from in-house theft loss.

Fully diluted losses per share after items were four cents from earnings per share of 6.99 cents last year.

Turnover was down 6.32 per cent to $1.28 billion and operating profit fell 1.03 per cent to $18.20 million.