London, May 16, 2026, 17:05 BST
Rio Tinto plc starts the week on its back foot, as its London shares dropped 4.76% Friday to 7,766 pence, a bigger loss than the FTSE 100’s 1.71% drop and dragging the miner back from its highest level this year.
London Stock Exchange closed for the day, with trading hours running Monday through Friday, 0800 to 1630 local time. That leaves Saturday’s issue: what happens to a stock after it snapped sharply lower from a new high.
Rio Tinto’s week moved fast. Shares closed May 8 at 7,704p, jumped to 8,275p by Wednesday, then slipped to finish Friday at 7,766p. The sharp move midweek left just a small net gain.
London shares as a whole offered little support. FTSE 100 finished Friday at 10,195.37, slipping from 10,233.07 the week before. That left Rio’s weekly move looking less like a break higher and more like a stall at the top.
Metals were under pressure. Copper, seen as a bellwether for industrial demand from sectors like power, construction, and data centers, dropped 4.81% on May 15. Iron ore edged down 0.32% to $110.77 a tonne.
The falls extended beyond London. Australian miners dropped 3.1% on Friday with weaker iron ore and copper weighing on the group. BHP lost 2.6%, while Rio’s Australian shares slipped 3.2% after touching record highs earlier in the week.
Rio’s latest update doesn’t show a weak operating picture. In April, the miner kept its 2026 Pilbara iron ore sales guidance steady at 323 million to 338 million tons. First-quarter mined copper production climbed to 229,000 tons, up from 210,000 a year ago.
The company posted a 9% year-on-year increase in copper equivalent production, which puts all commodities on a copper basis. Chief Executive Simon Trott said Rio’s “stronger, sharper, simpler” plan is “moving at pace,” and reported the first $650 million of annualised benefits are now fully in place. Rio Tinto
Investors are still sticking with the sector. BlackRock’s Evy Hambro told Reuters the move toward hard assets “looked like the early stages of a commodity supercycle.” Hambro also said, “The material intensity of GDP is rising.” Anix Vyas at Harding Loevner said, “Copper is very much in demand,” pointing to Rio’s copper and aluminium positions. Reuters
Rio Tinto filled its top legal and governance role. The miner said Thursday it named Trudi Charles, previously with BP, as its next chief legal officer and head of governance and corporate affairs. Charles replaces Isabelle Deschamps starting Aug. 1.
Goldman Sachs in April left its 2026 copper price target at $12,650 a metric ton, warning that longer disruptions near the Strait of Hormuz along with China’s ban on sulphuric acid exports could squeeze supplies for copper production. That could give some support to copper. But rising oil prices and supply-chain stress would push costs and inflation higher too.
Rio Tinto faces a test Monday with buyers needing to hold Friday’s 7,697p low. That’s where support has shown up lately. If it slips, sellers could push lower. A bounce above 8,000p would help the chart, but with copper and iron ore weak before London, traders expect a shaky, flat-to-down open. Rio stays exposed to more profit-taking.
