Stocks to watch: NZ Oil & Gas, Nuplex, CBS, SKT, TEL, WSI

Monday 26th April 2010

New Zealand Oil & Gas shares rise as crude prices rise in the US and Nuplex confirms the appointment of its new chief executive. CBS Canterbury seeks cover under the government’s extended retail deposit guarantee scheme.

New Zealand Oil & Gas (NZX: NZO ): New York crude rose above US$85 a barrel on Friday in the US as a jump in sales of new homes stoked optimism the world’s biggest economy is accelerating. Crude for June delivery rose 1.7% to US$85.12 a barrel. Shares of NZOG rose 2 cents to $1.54 on Friday.

Nuplex Industries (NZX: NPX ): The specialty chemicals maker confirmed the appointment of its new chief executive Emery Severin on Friday, replacing the long-serving John Hirst. The shares rose 3.1% to $3.36 on Friday.

CBS Canterbury (NZX: CBS ): The country’s only listed building society announced on Friday that it would seek cover under the government’s extended retail deposit guarantee scheme. Only Marac Finance, Equitable Mortgages and South Canterbury Finance have been accepted, while Fisher & Paykel Finance is still waiting to hear from the Treasury about its application. The shares were unchanged at $3.00 on Friday.

Sky Network Television (NZX: SKT ): TelstraClear, which rebroadcasts Sky on its cable networks in Wellington and Christchurch, is “very unhappy” with its relationship with the pay-TV company and wants the ability to source content elsewhere, chief executive Allan Freeth told the Dominion Post. TelstraClear is upgrading its cable service to allow download speeds of 100 megabits a second which is fast enough to stream high-definition on-demand TV programmes. Sky’s shares fell 3 cents to $5.07 on Friday

Telecom (NZX: TEL ): The nation’s biggest phone company edged up 0.5% to $2.19 on Friday, after Commerce Commission figures showed mobile connections grew 20% to 4.9 million between 2005/06 and 2008/09. The commission’s annual telecommunications monitoring report showed both Vodafone and Telecom lost market share as Two Degrees Mobile took 3.8% of the market.

Wool Services International (NZX: WSI ): The company on Friday said it has rearranged its banking facilities and will be repaying in full its borrowings from ANZ National Bank and South Canterbury Finance. Bank of New Zealand has provided longer-term facilities which will “materially reduce” borrowing costs. Trading and scouring activity has improved significantly as predicted and a “satisfactory profit” will be achieved in the 12 months ended June 30.

Economic themes of the day: Shares on Wall Street reached a 19-month high on Friday, as fears eased about the impact of health-care reform on companies such as Merck & Co. and a lift in the price of oil helped underpin energy stocks.

Investors are looking ahead this week to the Reserve Bank's review of monetary policy on Thursday, which will provide clues to the timing of interest rate hikes.

The New Zealand dollar rose to 71.61 US cents from 71.15 cents in New York on Friday.

Businesswire.co.nz

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