ASB Securities Morning Brief for Thursday, 02 February 2012

NZ Market Report. New Zealand stocks rose slightly but trading remained very light as investors clung to the sidelines... Read more

An embarrassing blunder has revealed the Government's original intention to keep a crucial Treaty of Waitangi clause out of legislation required for state asset sales... Read more

Meridian Energy has warned it could fall short of financial targets as it cuts generation to conserve water in southern hydro lakes... Read more

Hundreds of former Hanover investors could soon line up for tax write-offs.... Read more

The New Zealand dollar rose to a new high against the euro and touched a 4 ½-month high versus the greenback as the nation’s resilient economy and relatively appealing interest rates lured investors in the face of mixed global signals... Read more

Dick Smith is likely to cut 66 of its New Zealand stores.... Read more

Briscoe Group boss Rod Duke has downplayed speculation he could buy Dick Smith's New Zealand operations... Read more

A transaction worth more than $100 million between Bridgecorp and a group allegedly acting as its "piggybank" did not have proper approval, lacked supporting documents and was at odds with the failed finance company's own rules, a new witness has told the High Court... Read more

State-owned Kiwibank has had the outlook on its credit rating dragged down by the “ongoing structural decline” of parent New Zealand Post’s delivery business, according to Standard & Poor’s... Read more

Sanitarium NZ has made 36 positions at its quake-hit manufacturing centre redundant and indefinitely suspended Weet-Bix manufacturing... Read more

A US geothermal company has Overseas Investment Office approval to invest $200m in a proposed power station on Maori-owned land near Rotorua.... Read more

The directors of Lombard Finance & Investments acted with honesty and integrity, using the best information they had available to them,according to the defence counsel... Read more

Christmas hamper company Chrisco has been fined $175,000 for misleading customers... Read more

South Port New Zealand, which operates the nation’s southern-most port at Bluff, has sold its surplus mobile harbor crane to a Bahamas-based company for US$1.13 million... Read more

A bid by a United States firm to acquire Ezi-Pay is not a straightforward one that can simply be "rubber stamped", the government monopoly watchdog says... Read more

Newmont Waihi Gold has been given the green light to tunnel under the Martha Mine open pit in the town, a project that could cost $55 million... Read more

Credit growth remained feeble over 2011, Reserve Bank figures show... Read more

Fran O'Sullivan. On Friday the Prime Minister is set to deliver an unambiguous message that New Zealand does welcome Chinese investment. The timing couldn't be more exquisite... Read more

Australian Market Report. Shares closed lower for a third day, led down by the big miners and after a soft session on Wall Street... Read more

Gina Rinehart inched closer to her target of a 14 per cent stake in Fairfax Media, boosting her push to take at least one of the vacant board seats in the media group... Read more

The Government flags tougher rules on media ownership after a share raid reportedly gives mining magnate Gina Rinehart a 12.8pc stake in Fairfax... Read more

Optus has won a landmark court case which shatters Telstra's stranglehold over internet sports broadcasting... Read more

House prices plunged by the most on record in 2011 as global uncertainty kept a lid on demand... Read more

A leading economist believes Australia will see higher prices and stronger demand for resources after official figures showed a surprise pick-up in Chinese manufacturing activity in January... Read more

A major player in Fortescue Metals Group's amazing six-year run has all but abandoned the stock with a major selldown revealed overnight... Read more

Mining companies and mining industry associations spent more than $8 million on political campaigning during the election year of 2010-11, much of it donated direct to the Liberal and National parties... Read more

Independent MP Rob Oakeshott says new figures released from the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) give voters a reason to be cynical about Australia's democracy... Read more

Employer groups are alarmed by Fair Work Australia's decision to give low-paid workers in the community services sector pay rises of up to 45 per cent.... Read more

A fall in the value of nickel has led BHP Billiton to cut 155 jobs from its Nickel West operation... Read more

The class action against Australia's biggest banks over late payment fees has escalated, with lawyers drawing in St George and BankSA... Read more

Doubt has again surfaced over the future of Holden manufacturing in northern Adelaide... Read more

Iconic fly spray Mortein and disinfectant Dettol will no longer be produced in Australia from July, taking 190 manufacturing jobs with them... Read more

Media scion Lachlan Murdoch can breathe easier after a five-fold increase in Funtastic's share price since November... Read more

Sinking household wealth is making life hard for retailers - but smart innovators will find ways to thrive... Read more

The British energy company BG, formerly British Gas, has shored up supplies for its Curtis Island export project by taking a 9.4 per cent stake in Drillsearch Energy, one of the fastest growing shale gas companies... Read more

Malaysia has given the green light for a controversial rare earths plant being built by Australian miner Lynas to start operating... Read more

The release of Coles's sales results for the December quarter today is expected to confirm that its grocery business has outperformed rival Woolworths on a same store basis for a 10th consecutive quarter... Read more

The likelihood Qantas will need to pursue a capital raising within the next two years has increased following the latest downgrade of its investment grade credit rating to just one notch above junk status, analysts say... Read more

Crown and Tabcorp spinoff Echo Entertainment could increase revenue by billions... Read more

Billionaire James Packer has already spent hundreds of millions of dollars upgrading the Burswood casino complex and is reported to be willing to spend a billion dollars more revamping it.... Read more

Record thermal coal production from Australia underpinned a solid year for Xstrata.... Read more

Struggling uranium miner Energy Resources Australia has underwhelmed the market.... Read more

Toyota Australia has demanded industrial relations reforms, saying the current workplace culture is preventing the company from creating a globally competitive manufacturing operation, according to The Australian Financial Review... Read more

The Oswal family's majority stake in the $700 million Burrup ammonia plant has been split between existing stakeholder Yara International and Apache Corp, both with considerable interests in the future of the world-class producer... Read more

An index for 'sharia-compliant' Australian equity portfolios launched in Australia... Read more

Saxo Bank will be allowed to offer financial services directly to clients despite concerns... Read more

Cape Lambert Resources has confirmed Pinnacle Investment Management has sold a 9.4 per cent stake in the company to UK institutions for $36.4 million in an off-market transaction... Read more

A steady resurgence in commodity prices since November has not been fully reflected in the share prices of the big diversified miners such as BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto. Both have a strong suit in iron ore, a weak spot in aluminium, and big growth plans for copper... Read more

Michael West. Gina Rinehart's interest in buying Fairfax is about political influence rather than investment potential... Read more

Adele Ferguson. When Gina Rinehart pushed the go button on buying 10 per cent of Fairfax Media she put the entire sector under the blowtorch, both in investment terms and from the perspective of the role the media has in influencing political and social policy... Read more

Ian Verrender. Rather than the much-heralded assault on the Australian residential housing market, as has been predicted for the past five years by an ever-increasing host of international and domestic doomsayers, we are instead witnessing an orderly retreat... Read more

Sean Aylmer. It is a brave, or foolish, prime minister who forecasts the movements of the Australian dollar... Read more

Elizabeth Knight. Given the speed of technology change, Telstra took a risk entering a five-year contract... Read more

Alan Kohler. To influence Fairfax strategy and management, Gina Rinehart will need to buy more than 15 per cent of the company. And if her aim is to make money, Fairfax is a big gamble... Read more

Stephen Bartholomeusz. Optus was cleared of breaching copyright laws on NRL and AFL broadcast rights, but with the combined political clout of the two codes, the telco's victory may be short lived... Read more

Ian McIlwraith. Silver Lake Resources finally closed the book on its gold-spinning options deal... Read more

US Market Report. Stocks rallied on Wednesday, with all major indexes up more than 1 percent, as upbeat economic data from China and Germany eased concerns about the global economy, while Greece neared a long-delayed deal on a debt swap... Read more

World Market Report. An updated report of the worlds' latest market movements... Read more

Promising figures for manufacturing output in economies throughout the world boost stock markets... Read more

Cautious optimism that the euro zone crisis may be turning a corner fuelled demand for European government debt on Wednesday, easing pressure on Portugal, seen as the most vulnerable country after Greece... Read more

Facebook Inc., the world’s largest social-networking service, chose Morgan Stanley to take the lead on its planned initial public offering, four people with knowledge of the matter said... Read more

Facebook’s stock offering, expected to value the company at $75 billion to $100 billion, is bound to raise even more concerns about privacy and other issues... Read more

A top Federal Reserve official sharply criticized the U.S. central bank's decision last week to telegraph ultra low interest rates for nearly three more years, saying on Wednesday the move undermined confidence and caused confusion... Read more

NYSE Euronext's proposed merger with Deutsche Boerse is blocked by the EU on competition grounds... Read more

The pace of job creation by private US employers slowed more than expected in January after a sharp gain the month before, a report by a payrolls processor showed on Wednesday... Read more

The highest proportion of European companies on record are missing profit estimates even as the region’s stocks post their best start to a year since 1998... Read more

Sony announces that chief executive Howard Stringer is to step down on 1 April, to be replaced by vice president Kazuo Hirai... Read more

Online retail giant Amazon announces a sharp fall in profits and warns about worse than expected results this year... Read more

Chrysler Group LLC posted a 44 percent rise in U.S. auto sales in January, led by gains for its Jeep brand, while its larger domestic rival General Motors Co lost ground in a month marked by modest growth... Read more

The travel review website TripAdvisor is told to make changes to its adverts in the UK and stop implying that all its reviews are honest and trusted... Read more

Apple Inc. failed to get a preliminary ban on sales of Samsung Electronics Co.’s Galaxy 10.1N and Galaxy Nexus mobile phone from a German court... Read more

France's Dassault has been awarded frontrunner status in the hotly contested $20bn race to supply 126 fighter jets to India, providing a much-needed boost for French economic and industrial prestige... Read more

Former UK chancellor and leading figures from the business world say the political pressure to strip former RBS CEO Fred Goodwin of his knighthood was like a lynch mob... Read more

Tobacco companies handed investors the best returns in the last decade when adjusted for volatility, and analysts at BNY Mellon Wealth Management and Janney Montgomery Scott LLC say that will continue as profits prove resilient amid economic turmoil... Read more

Robert Peston. There is a lot of chatter around the place that somehow the UK government is becoming anti-business with the way it welcomed the de-knighting of Fred Goodwin and the pressure it put on RBS's board to slash Stephen Hester's bonus... Read more