S&P/ASX 200 opened down 23.5 points (-0.26%) at 9,185.90 on Aug. 13 (Thursday).

Drone strikes damaged three grain terminals at Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, including a United Grain Company processing plant where a loading conveyor collapsed, and hit loading corridors and truck-unloading facilities; the Kosk grain terminal was also struck. The attacks occurred as Ukraine has stepped up strikes on key maritime infrastructure. Russia and Ukraine have recently increased attacks on each other’s Black Sea commercial vessels and ports, stoking grain supply concerns and helping push wheat to a two-year high in July. The two countries together supply more than a quarter of global wheat exports, and farmers are in the mid-season harvest.

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