Forum Archive Index - May 2000

["Christian Mair" <silu@ihug.co.nz>]

Last month during the highly volatile market I rang my full service broker to sell 45% of my holdings in SKY (avg. Purchase Price $2.91) and to increase my holdings in INL I wanted to put a bid in at $3.75. The reason behind it was, that I expected a weak Kiwi dollar and SKY's major expenses are purchases of overseas programming rights in US$ (also outlined in the latest issue of "The Headliner"). My broker did not advise me to do so and rather than listening to my point, he told me that increasing interest rates to come will stabilise the Kiwi dollar. To make a long story short, I felt patronised rather than advised. I used then an online discount sharebroker to go ahead with my transactions and the last two weeks have shown that I was right. So much to making up your own mind, as previously mentioned by a fellow poster. Sky has fallen to $3.91 and INL (avg. purchase price $3.45 - post share split) rose to $3.90.

 

What has happened in the meantime:

Telecom has increased its holding in INL to 10%. INL looks into its own Online service and News Corp is investigating restructuring options for its 49 per cent shareholding in INL, which in turn owns just under half of Sky TV (source "NZ Herald").

 

Any opinions out there regarding SKY (35% of my portfolio) & INL (25% of my portfolio)?

 

Regards,

Christian Mair

 

P.S.: Should I have made any mistakes in this post, please excuse as I only speak actively English for 3 years.