Stocks to watch: ANZ Bank, Pumpkin Patch, Telecom

Monday 20th July 2009

The following stocks may be active on the New Zealand exchange after developments since the close of trading Friday.

Themes of the day: Shares on Wall Street rounded out their strongest week of gains in four months, helped by better-than-expected earnings International Business Machines, Goldman Sachs Group and Intel Corp. US housing starts rose 3.6% to an annual 582,000 last month, a sign that the American property market may be recovering from its slump. Starts for single-family homes soared 14.4%, the biggest gain since December 2004.

Air New Zealand (AIR): A downturn in corporate conferences and association meetings of some estimated 20% has dragged down business tourism, the New Zealand Herald Reported. The national carrier should be one of the companies affected by the drop-off, still Conventions and Incentives chief executive Alan Trotter expects the sector to pick-up in the coming year. Shares in the airline rose 5.8% last week to 91 cents.

Australia & New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ): Standard & Poor’s on Friday reaffirmed the ratings of Australia’s largest banks even while assuming they will fail to overturn tax penalties imposed by the New Zealand Inland Revenue Department. UBS Investment Research said it had no concerns for the capital adequacy of any of the banks if awards were made against all of them. ANZ shares rose 0.7% to $20.85. Westpac Banking Corp. (WBC) fell 0.6% to $25.10.

New Zealand Oil & Gas (NZO): The price of crude oil futures rose 3.2% to around US$64 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Shares in the gas and exploration company climbed 0.6% to $1.57 in trading on Friday and have surged some 24% this year.

Pumpkin Patch (PPL): The children’s clothing chain is rated a ‘buy’ by Buffy Gill, an analyst at Goldman Sachs JBWere, according to the ShareChat website. The retailer’s decision to close 20 stores in the US will boost 2010 and 2011 net profit by about 40%, according to the report. The shares fell 1.3% to $1.52 on Friday.

Telecom Corp. (TEL): The new CEO of start-up mobile company 2degrees, Eric Hertz, said he expects a smooth transition after the sudden resignation of his predecessor and is keen to take on rivals Telecom and Vodafone, which dominate the market, the New Zealand Herald reported. Telecom shares rose 0.7% to $2.71 on Friday.

Businesswire.co.nz

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