Rio Tinto boss quells upturn hopes

MINING giant Rio Tinto, seen as a barometer of economic activity, has warned stock market bulls against predicting an imminent upturn despite evidence that prices for its key products have bottomed.

Chairman Sir Bob Wilson said he 'simply did not know' what 2002 had in store. 'Significant improvement still seems unlikely before the middle of the year at the earliest,' he said. But he noted that the mining industry's recent success in curbing supply had left stockpiles lower than when prices last collapsed in 1982.

The sector has been awash with buy recommendations from investment banks in the past three months. Rio said it had fought off the impact of weak metal prices in the past year, thanks to a $140m (£100m) gain from favourable currency movements, buoyant markets for coal and iron ore and contributions from recent acquisitions.

This enabled it to report a 10% rise in underlying profits to a record $1.6bn for the year to 31 December. Asset write-downs of $583m left pre-tax profits 21% lower at $2bn. The year's dividend is up 3% at 59p.