Rio Tinto completes two thirds of buyback

Rio Tinto has completed a A$2.87bn (US$2.1bn, £1.6bn) off-market share buyback to cancel 2.41% of the group's issued shares.

The FTSE 100 group announced in September that is would carry out a US$3.2bn share buyback to return the proceeds from the sale of its coal assets.

The off-market buyback of 41.2m shares was completed at a 14% discounted price of A$69.69 per share.

All shares purchased will be cancelled, the company said.