It's been a rough week for the Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX: FMG) share price. It's plummeted 12.92% over the last seven days despite the company's silence.
Stock in the resources giant is trading at $16.04 a share at the time of writing, slipping 2.43%. That's despite it closing at $18.42 last Wednesday.
To further compare its performance, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) has dumped 3.6% over the last week and the S&P/ASX 200 Materials Index (ASX: XMJ) has fallen 7.2%.
So, what's been weighing on the Fortescue share price lately? Keep reading to find out.
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What's been weighing on the Fortescue share price?
The Fortescue share price has put on a disastrous performance over the last week. But part of its tumble was well warranted.
The company's shares traded ex-dividend on Monday. That meant anyone snapping up the stock from then on out has missed out on the company's upcoming $1.21 fully franked dividend.
A company's share price generally falls in line with the value of its upcoming payout on its ex-dividend date. However, the Fortescue share price only fell 79 cents – or 4.6% – on Monday.
The payout will start to land in investors' accounts from 29 September.
Additionally, to garner a broader understanding of what's been going on with Fortescue's stock, it's worth looking at what's been happening with the iron ore price.
Iron ore futures were trading at US$104.49 a tonne last Wednesday, according to CommSec. Its value has slumped to US$97.61 a tonne as of this morning, marking a 6.6% week-on-week fall.
The material's value has fallen amid COVID-19-induced lockdowns and restrictions in China. Of course, such a slump has likely weighed on the producer's stock.
It also might have had a hand in dragging the share price of Fortescue's peer, BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP), 10% lower over the week just been. Meanwhile, fellow iron ore giant Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) has seen its share price slump 5% over the last seven days.
