Buybacks and divi boost for investors

SAVERS and pensioners were boosted as mining giants Glencore and BHP pledged to return £8.6bn through dividends and share buybacks.

Demand for industrial metals has rocketed since the world economy began to bounce back from the pandemic. Prices of commodities including iron ore, coal and oil are soaring.

BHP and Glencore kicked off what is expected to be a bumper results season for miners, with Rio Tinto and Anglo American set to reveal similarly strong figures next week.

Glencore will distribute around £3bn after annual revenues leapt by 43pc to £150bn. Most of this will be through a £2.5bn dividend, while the rest will be through a share buyback.

Anglo-Australian giant BHP said it would hand out a record £5.6bn to investors through an all-time-high dividend after halfyear profits rose 77pc to £9.4bn.

It makes most of its money from producing steel ingredient iron ore from mines in Australia, and has now distributed more than £16bn to investors in 18 months.

It was the first set of results BHP has released since it ditched its dual-listed structure, which took it out of the FTSE 100 index.

Although its shares are still traded in London, its main stock market is now Australia.

The increase in dividends will be welcomed by British savers and pensioners who rely on the payments and other shareholder returns for income.

Many of the London Stock Exchange’s biggest companies slashed or cancelled dividends in 2020 due to the pandemic, which threw their finances into chaos.

But this also hit millions of ordinary Britons, whose nest eggs are linked to the performance of the stock market.