OZ Minerals Slumps on Speculation of Output Cut: Sydney Mover

OZ Minerals Ltd. (OZL), Australia’s third- biggest copper producer, fell the most in almost four years on speculation it will miss its output target this year, said Chris Weston, chief market strategist at IG Markets Ltd.

The stock fell 9.8 percent to A$6.71 at the close of trading in Sydney, its biggest drop since February 2009. The benchmark stock index rose 0.5 percent.

There is no production problem at its Prominent Hill mine in South Australia and the company expects to meet its full-year production target of 100,000 metric tons to 110,000 tons for copper, spokeswoman Rachel Eaves said in an e-mailed response to Bloomberg questions.

“You don’t just offload a good stock at this time of year unless you have some sort of conviction and the rumor is there’s some sort of issue at their mine that potentially could affect production guidance,” Weston said by phone from Melbourne.

To contact the reporter on this story: Soraya Permatasari in Melbourne at soraya@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Hobbs at ahobbs4@bloomberg.net