It was a rough day for iron ore companies on Wednesday. After the unsettling sale of $1.9 billion worth of Fortescue (ASX:FMG) shares, global prices dipped below the US$100 a tonne mark for the second time in a week.
On the SGX trading platform, prices ended Tuesday at US$99.30 a tonne for 62% Fe fines, down from US$101.90 the previous day and lower than the US$99.70 a tonne hit last Thursday at the close.
Tuesday’s session low of US$98 a tonne was the lowest point since early April.
Fortescue shares plummeted 10% on Tuesday, reaching their lowest level since November 2022. This followed a massive US investor’s offloading of nearly $2 billion worth of stock on Monday night.
The seller was identified as Los Angeles-based financial manager, Capital Group, which dumped its Fortescue stake at A$18.55 per share, a discount of almost 9% on the stock’s Monday closing price. The shares closed Tuesday at A$18.28.
This was the second time in just over a month that Capital has sold Fortescue shares. It offloaded nearly 32 million shares (valued at $713 million) on June 14, reducing its holding below the 5% disclosure level.
A shareholder notice should be filed with the ASX shortly, assuming JPMorgan has successfully sold the shares acquired from Capital.