Investors are seeing months of hard-earned gains wiped out as the BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) share price slides another 7% on Thursday.
Shares in the mining giant touched a 5-month low of $44.19 this morning and are currently trading at $44.46, down 6.8%.
Image source: Getty Images
BHP share price falls off cliff post-FY21 results
The selling pressure has continued for BHP shares following the release of its highly anticipated FY21 results on Wednesday.
Investors seemed to have already anticipated a record result from the mining giant, unphased by its 88% surge in underlying attributable profit to US$17,077 million and a record fully franked final dividend of US$2.00 per share.
The sharp 8.06% selloff yesterday was met with its highest selling volume since March 2020. Just over ~25 million BHP shares traded hands, compared to its current 10-day average of approximately 9.77 million shares.
The selling pressure has continued today, with the BHP share price opening 5.8% lower at $45.28 and currently down 7.13% to $44.30.
More than 14 million BHP shares have been traded in today's session, despite there being more than 3 hours until market close.
Iron ore woes continue
Iron ore prices have continued to crater, with spot prices fetching US$159.59/tonne according to Market Index.
Perhaps what's more discouraging is the fall in Chinese iron ore futures contracts on the Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE).
At the time of writing, DCE iron ore futures have tumbled 5.7% to the lowest levels since March this year, broadly coinciding with the BHP share price falling to 5-month lows.
According to a report in Mining.com:
China's steel industry is under pressure after pledging to reduce output this year, a goal that requires huge second-half curbs to offset booming output earlier in 2021. Production in July was more than 8% lower year-on-year, data on Monday showed.
Authorities in the steel production hub Tangshan city in Hebei province have issued an air quality control plan for the Beijing Winter Olympics in February, imposing ultra-low emission standards across the steel and power sectors until March.
While the BHP share price has enjoyed sky-high iron ore prices for most of this year, the opposite is whipping off months of hard-earned gains.
