Stocks to watch: ALF, MFT, PGC, RBD, TEL

Wednesday 2nd June 2010

Allied Finance has completed a review of loan provisioning, Mainfreight has had its recommendation upgraded, while Restaurant Brands shares rise after reporting sales growth and Pyne Gould shares also jump after it announced yesterday it is in talks with Canterbury Building Society and Southern Cross Building Society to create a bank.

Allied Finance (ALF): The company’s Allied Nationwide Finance unit said it has completed a review of loan provisioning in preparation for the 30 June 2010 year end accounts. It expects to recognise about $10.7 million in loan provisions in the second half. The shares dropped about 2% to 5 cents yesterday.

Mainfreight (MFT): Broker First NZ Capital has upgraded its recommendation on the largest listed trucking company to ‘outperform’ from ‘neutral’, according to the Sharechat website. Analyst Kar Yue Yeo upgraded his 2011 to 2013 net profit forecast for the company by between 4% and 11%, saying “earnings in Australia and the US have more than halved and have the potential to double.” The shares rose 2 cents to $6.26 yesterday.

Pyne Gould Corp. (PGC): The company is in talks to merge its Marac finance unit with Canterbury Building Society and Southern Cross Building Society to create a bank with $2.2 billion of assets, it said yesterday. The stock rose 2.3% to 45 cents.

Restaurant Brands (RBD): The fast-food operator’s shares rose 3.1% to $2.32 yesterday after announcing a 4.2% increase in sales on the back of sustained growth in its KFC brand, making up for weaker performance at its Starbucks Coffee and Pizza Hut outlets. KFC accounted for $54.3 million of the $75.9 million sales.

Telecom Corp. (TEL): The biggest phone company on the NZX may see an improvement in its long-term outlook if it hives off its network assets to participate in the government’s $1.5 billion roll-out of high-speed broadband, Moody’s Investors Service said. The stock fell 1.6% to $1.87 yesterday.

Themes of the day: Stocks on Wall Street pared losses after strong US manufacturing data and a 25 basis point rate hike by the Bank of Canada eroded earlier pessimism about the global recovery, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 1.1%. The kiwi dollar climbed to 81.24 Australian cents after the Reserve Bank of Australia kept rates on hold, and the hike by Canada's central bank has piqued expectations for an increase in the Official Cash Rate next week when the RBNZ reviews monetary policy. The price of whole milk powder fell 3.4% to US$3,790 a tonne on Fonterra's online trading platform, with short-term supply pressures underpinning the recent surge in prices. ANZ New Zealand's Commodity Price Index out this afternoon will give an indication as to how the price of local raw materials is tracking.

Businesswire.co.nz

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