Copper company stocks fall faster than copper price

The price of copper is down 15% from its peak but the stock value of copper producers has fallen an average of 45% according to an analysis on Mineweb.com.

Stock price of Phoenix-based Freeport McMoRan, the world's biggest copper producer, has fallen by nearly a third. The story offered no easy explanations for the huge disparity between the falls in metal and producer prices.

Hit even harder is Arizona-based Southern Copper with a nearly 47% drop. While the article didn't mention it, this is the kind of situation that attracts takeover attention.

	Stock	From	From	Value
	price	high*	low*	USD bn
Freeport-McMoRan	USD 87.37	-31.3%	30.3%	33.48
Southern Copper	USD 24.90	-47.9%	6.6%	22.00