Peru mulls green light for $6 billion in mining projects
The government is evaluating the authorization of 134 exploration and exploitation projects, Boluarte said in a traditional Independence Day address to Congress.
Officials in Peru, the world's third-biggest copper producer, are in talks with informal miners who launched protests in late June, blocking a transport corridor used by major miners including MMG (1208.HK), opens new tab and Glencore (GLEN.L), opens new tab.
Miners have paused that protest and corridor blockade during negotiations over a potential new law for the sector.
Among informal miners, tensions escalated after over 50,000 were removed from a formalization scheme, leaving just 31,000 that the government is seeking to bring in line with regulations by year end.
Boluarte said the government was working on starting a private mining fund to give small formal miners access to better financing. As she spoke, police used tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters marching toward Congress. Some carried cardboard coffins, a reference to the dozens killed during unrest early in her term.
Recent polls put Boluarte's approval ratings at between 2% and 4%, among the lowest for any world leader.
In the address, the president also announced a deal with Ecuador's state oil firm Petroecuador to connect Ecuadorean oil fields to a Peruvian pipeline, allowing transport to Peru's Talara refinery.
While Peru's economy has rebounded from a recession triggered by anti-government unrest, poverty levels remain near 30%.
Boluarte, whose term ends in 2026, took office in late 2022 after her predecessor, Pedro Castillo, was ousted and arrested for attempting to illegally dissolve Congress.
She faces an investigation over the deaths during subsequent protests, for which she denies wrongdoing. Her cabinet sparked further outrage in July by doubling her salary.
"The icing on the cake is raising their salaries and colluding with those with power to keep plundering the country's natural resources," said protester Milagros Sanchez, a public school teacher.
The Andean nation has been mired in political instability, with six presidents since 2018. The next general election is scheduled for April 2026.
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The Independent
7 hours ago
- The Independent
Why the FTSE 100 is breaking records — and why that's good for your pensions
The FTSE 100 has surged to new record levels after investors piled back into the stock markets they deserted in April following Donald Trump's announcements of tariffs. The new highs are seen as good news for investors but also for most people in the UK, whose pensions will likely be invested in companies in the stock market. And the levels could continue to go higher in the wake of a trade agreement between the US and the EU. Here, The Independent takes a look at what this could mean for future investments: What is the FTSE 100? The FTSE 100 is what is known as an index. This is simply a collection of the 100 biggest public companies (that you can buy shares in) which have their main company listing on the London Stock Exchange. You may have heard of the S&P 500 which is similar – that's 500 of the biggest in the US, while the CAC 40 is France's top 40 companies and so on. The FTSE 100 simply refers to those we might call British, although they don't have to have been founded in the UK. When they collectively rise in share price, the FTSE 100 rises as an index; when they drop in share price, it goes lower. Why is it at a record high and why does that matter? As a collective, share prices have risen to a record high. The FTSE 100 passed 8,000 points for first time in 2023 and 9,000 for the first time just last week. Across 2025 so far it has risen more than 11 per cent. If dividends are added, it's even higher. As for why it's important, it's generally seen as an overall indicator of the UK's economic strength – at least as far as public companies within it go. The reasons why those individual companies have grown is more nuanced and varied. Recently, the UK market had been seen as undervalued relative to international peers, which makes the companies in it an attractive asset to buy. Then there's the fact many of them make good dividend payments – paying out profits to shareholders – and that the UK was one of the first to agree a trade deal with the US. That removed some uncertainty from the businesses where others in Europe and further afield were still left in limbo, while domestic economic matters impact too. For example, the political decision to spend more on national defence means companies within that sector benefit from big contracts – and the UK has several of those. Which companies have seen their share price rise? Taking the above example, Rolls Royce has seen its share price rise more than 70 per cent this year so far. Investing platform interactive investor places the engine-making company at third among FTSE 100 firms for share price rises in the first half of 2025, behind fellow defence firm Babcock (129 per cent) and miner Fresnillo (132 per cent). Elsewhere, miners and banks have done generally well, though it's not an across-the-board situation. Glencore, for example, is down more than 11 per cent since the start of 2025 and advertising firm WPP has seen its share price almost halved. What does that mean for my pension and investments? Depending on the type of pension you have, it's possible that a portion of it will be invested in the FTSE 100 itself, or other funds which contain companies that are in the index. As such that means your pension value will have increased – or at least, the portion of it invested in those British companies will have. A pension focused on strict ethical criteria wouldn't have all of them, for example – the oil giants or tobacco firms would be excluded there. But it could still be benefiting from other companies' share price growth. Analysis by AJ Bell suggests the average defined benefit (DB) schemes may have around 1 per cent exposure to listed British assets, though that can vary significantly. Defined contribution (DC) schemes could have up to 25 per cent invested in UK equities - though again, some may have much less. The risk-averse nature of British people to not investing as much as Rachel Reeves is attempting to get them to seems to be partly responsible here too, says Laith Khalaf, AJ Bell's head of investment analysis, with fund managers reluctant to risk getting lower returns by altering allocations. 'While this year is a welcome turnaround in fortunes for UK stocks, it's unclear whether this will ignite a passion for domestic investment amongst pension schemes. Many follow a purely passive approach to the allocation of money, which normally means tracking the MSCI World Index, a widely used benchmark of global stocks,' Mr Khalaf explained. 'Only 3.6 per cent of this index sits in UK shares, and when you consider most pension schemes won't hold all their assets in shares, that only means a token investment in UK companies. Pension schemes can choose to allocate more money to the UK, but this requires an active decision to do so, and leaves the pension scheme managers on the hook if that leads to weaker performance compared to the global stock market.' And for the rest of 2025? Nothing is guaranteed, and as early April showed, the stock market can swing in either direction very quickly which will impact investments, including pensions. But as we said at the time, if you notice your pension going down you shouldn't really be worried about it - unless of course you are extremely close to retirement, in which case a discussion with a financial advisor or your pension provider should be a priority to discuss more of a focus on value protection. Likewise, now with many investments on the up, don't get too carried away thinking that's the 'minimum' you'll have in future. But over the long term, historically the direction has always been up. So while 2008, 2020 and many others show how markets can fall, consistently paying into investments along the way - as people do with auto-enrolment on a workplace pension for example - simply means that you'll get more bang for your buck at those moments, with many years ahead for (hopefully) the overall trend of rising to continue and benefit from.
The Guardian
9 hours ago
- The Guardian
Rachel Reeves' ‘save less to invest' policy could be brilliant for ordinary Britons – or a disaster
Without wanting to sound like a jeremiad from the Daily Mail, I should warn you that Rachel Reeves is after your money. Part of her plan to grow the UK economy involves persuading cautious Britons to take more risks with their savings. It's a win-win, she says. British business gets more investment and savers get better returns. The 'nation of shopkeepers' becomes a nation of investors. And it could all work out like that, of course. But there is the potential for things to go horribly wrong if the mooted letters from banks suggesting different investments and changes to risk warnings are done badly. There is also the danger of persuading people into the market in the good times, only for them to find themselves nursing losses in the next downturn. There are things that you will need to know – and they will need to know that you know – if this is to be a responsible policy. People, voters, know about savings. Stocks and shares, not so much. Timing is everything in stock markets – being able to sit out falls in share values is vital, and if people need their money just as things are going badly, they will rue the day that they moved money from their cosy cash Isa. Mis-selling is another problem. Allowing banks to flag up investments to people who are deemed to be sitting on more than enough in savings makes sense from the point of view that banks can see those accounts, but few would suggest that banks offer the best alternatives, or have previously done the best job of marrying consumers with the most suitable deals. And then there's the potential for scams – a call or email claiming to be from your bank, and suggesting you move your money, may not seem as suspicious if there are genuine communications flying around. The plan is not untenable. I agree with a lot of the government's comments about the stock market's potential to provide people with greater returns than cash deposits. The numbers are inarguable (even if the Treasury's choice of figures to show just how much better shares do has provoked disagreement). I invest: I have emergency money in savings, some in fixed-rate accounts that offer a bedrock. I have a couple of stocks and shares Isas too – the first was an absolute disaster and demonstrates what could go wrong if people are persuaded to buy in at the top of the market. I was just starting in personal finance and excited by everything I'd heard about shares. I had £500 in a savings account that was doing miserably, and I thought that by making it work harder I would get some money to put towards a flat deposit in a few years' time. I chose a UK growth fund – a fairly cautious choice as it invested in big UK companies that I understood. It was March 2000: the peak of the dotcom bubble. For the next decade, my investment was worth less than I had paid in. In 2009 it stood at £335.05 – the fund managers still had to be paid, so as well as falling prices, I'd had charges to contend with. I was lucky I didn't need to realise my paper loss, but the six-monthly statements outlining it did not inspire me with confidence in the market. Any attempt to persuade people out of their comfort zone is going to need to be clear about the potential for falls in value. But the chancellor has suggested that the risk warnings on investments now are too scary, and that they need to change. 'For too long, we have presented investment in too negative a light, quick to warn people of the risks without giving proper weight to the benefits,' she said, in her Mansion House speech. Balancing out risk warnings with details of the potential gains – as researchers have tested with consumers – does encourage more money into stocks and shares. However, those warnings shouldn't be so diluted that people do not understand the unpredictability of when those gains might be available. If you have a specific timeframe in mind, you need to know that you might be getting back less than you paid in. By the time I started my second stocks and shares Isa, I had learned a lesson about 'pound cost averaging'. Never again would I put a lump sum in the stock market – paying in regularly is the best way to reduce risk. I've also spread my money across several funds – and not all in the UK. These things are simple and have not added to the cost, but they take time to explore, and are not necessarily what will be offered widely. Past mis-selling scandals make me wary of handing responsibility for this to the big financial companies. Although the worst of the incentives that drove sales staff to heavily tout investments seem to have gone, there is a disincentive to offering the kind of holistic approach that is needed to make sure people are getting the guidance for specific investments at the right time: the promise is 'targeted support', but the more targeted it is, the more costly it will be for companies to provide. At what point does it become wise to put money in the market, rather than savings? Advice on that will need to be clear. The answer is not one size fits all. Some people have bigger monthly commitments than others, so should keep more in easily accessible accounts. Retired people generally should be taking less risk than younger people because they have less time to ride out the falls. But we all have our own goals and financial ties. A bank letter that is generated as soon as someone's savings account hits, say, £10,000 is not going to be offering the right advice for everyone. But making it more bespoke will cost more. The chancellor is basically right – more people should be investing, and there are things that could be done to help this. Perhaps a note on savings accounts: a warning of the risk of inflation eroding money in low-interest accounts – something experts say is too often ignored. Confidence could be built by reminding us that if we have a private pension, we already are investors – it's not something we will be doing for the first time. Increasing the contributions that must be paid into pensions through auto-enrolment will also bring money into the market. Better financial education in schools is crucial. Investing is, like politics, a matter of rises and falls, risk and returns – ever subject to sudden turbulence. Reeves understands both spheres, but can the public live like that? That's really quite the gamble. Hilary Osborne is the Guardian's money and consumer editor
Reuters
11 hours ago
- Reuters
Indian stocks linger around 6-week low on trade deal jitters, foreign outflows
July 29 (Reuters) - Indian shares were muted in early trades on Tuesday, with benchmark indexes near six-week lows, as concerns over a delay in signing a trade deal with the United States and sustained foreign outflows hurt demand. The Nifty 50 (.NSEI), opens new tab was up 0.09% at 24,703 points and the BSE Sensex (.BSESN), opens new tab added 0.04% to 80,924.62, as of 9:34 a.m. IST. The indexes hit their lowest since June 13 earlier in the session. Ten of the 16 major sectors rose, but heavyweight financials (.NIFTYFIN), opens new tab and information technology (.NIFTYIT), opens new tab were down 0.2% and 0.5%, respectively. The broader mid-cap (.NIFMDCP100), opens new tab and small-caps (.NIFSMCP100), opens new tab were little changed. "There are more headwinds than tailwinds for now. The major issue weighing on markets is that the expected trade deal between India and the U.S. has not happened so far," said VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Investments Negotiations between India and the United States remained deadlocked over tariff cuts on agriculture and dairy products, dimming hopes of a trade deal ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's August 1 deadline, Reuters reported last week, citing two Indian government sources. Trump said Monday that most trading partners who do not negotiate separate deals would soon face tariffs of 15% to 20% on their exports to the U.S., well above the broad 10% tariff he imposed in April. Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors sold Indian shares worth 60.81 billion rupees ($700.92 million) on Monday, as per provisional data, marking their biggest selling in India since May 30. Among stocks, IndusInd Bank ( opens new tab rose about 1% after the private lender swung back to profit in the first quarter, but concerns over weak return on asset outlook and worsened asset quality capped gains. Solar module maker Waaree Energies ( opens new tab jumped about 5% and was the top midcap gainer after it posted higher quarterly revenue and profit, while Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders ( opens new tab was the top midcap loser due to a decline in profit.
