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ASB Securities Morning Brief for Tuesday, 09 March 2010
New Zealand Headlines Tougher regulations for finance companies have already resulted in some leaving the industry.... Read more The Government is set to fast-track tougher regulations for KiwiSaver providers after Huljich Wealth Management's alleged manipulation of its performance measures... Read more The Reserve Bank of New Zealand is likely to keep the official cash rate at a record low 2.5% this week and reiterate its view that tightening can occur around the middle of the year as the economy continues its tepid recovery with little inflation... Read more New Zealand manufacturing sales volumes climbed in the fourth quarter, while home construction led to an increase in building work put in place, signs that the nation's economy is gradually reviving as expected... Read more Telecom might get a few hundred million dollars from the sale of its international division, a financial analyst says... Read more Cue Energy made a profit of A$8.4m (NZ$10.9m), up 150 per cent for the half year to December, with a big boost from the offshore Taranaki Maari oil field... Read more New Zealanders in the provinces are picking up their retail spending following the recession faster than the main centres, based on electronic card transactions... Read more A confidential report says there is "a strong business case" for a potential merger between Lyttelton Port of Christchurch and Port Otago, with one of the port owners saying a union could happen by December... Read more Small shareholders in Lyttelton Port appear to be disadvantaged over who gets to read a confidential, independent report on a potential merger of Lyttelton Port and Port Otago... Read more One of New Zealand's pre-eminent fisheries scientists says decisions on commercial fishing limits are essentially guesswork and "highly susceptible to influence"... Read more The Auckland retail and commercial property market seems set for a quiet 2010 with both vendors and purchasers adopting a cautionary stance, according to Darroch Research... Read more Rents look set to rise in Auckland as the rental pool drains somewhat, but the extent and reasons behind the drop are under debate... Read more New Zealand possums are dying and going to waste even as demand for their fur increases, says an industry body... Read more Jane Freeman has resigned as a director at Sky City Entertainment... Read more Gareth Morgan. Once was the case that developing countries ran deficits on their trade accounts because their importing of stuff way outstripped their ability to produce and sell stuff that the rest of the world wanted... Read more Daily Sharechat. Diligent Board Member Services, which produces technology for boards of directors, reported a fourth quarter result which showed an acceleration of the already strong sales growth the company registered in the first three quarters of 2009, says Roger Paterson, an analyst at McDouall Stuart... Read more NZ Market Report. New Zealand shares rose, nudging the NZX 50 Index up to a seven-week high as the kiwi dollar held near a decade low against its Australian counterpart, helping companies like Air New Zealand that rely on revenue from across the Tasman... Read more
Australian Headlines Australian Market Report. Shares rise nearly 1 per cent, led by the major resources stocks, while Arrow Energy receives a takeover offer... Read more Arrow Energy says it has received a non-binding takeover offer from a company jointly owned by the oil giant, Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina.... Read more Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina's $3.3 billion bid for Arrow Energy is unlikely to be blocked on foreign investment grounds or trumped by a superior offer, analysts say, as the Australian coal seam gas hopeful considers the indicative offer... Read more The credibility of the ratings agency Standard & Poor's has come under legal attack in a $40 million action by a local government superannuation investor over a triple-A rated debt investment... Read more Expectations for sales and profits for the June quarter are at their highest in at least five years, a survey show... Read more The children of the late minerals prospector Peter Wright have won a nine-year court battle against the family company of Mr Wright's late partner Lang Hancock over half of one of Australia's richest undeveloped iron ore deposits... Read more Queensland's coal companies will push ahead with a plan to try to buy the railway lines that carry their product to ports... Read more ABC Learning's founder, Eddy Groves, was ''off the mark'' by about $200 million when he presented his company's financial situation to lenders months before its collapse... Read more Intoll will foot a $20 million bill to settle a lawsuit brought by one of MIG's largest former shareholders... Read more Outgoing JB Hi-Fi chief executive Richard Uechtritz has sold almost $10 million worth of shares as he prepares to retire... Read more The Australian dollar closed more than US1c higher yesterday, as traders became less risk averse to the local currency... Read more Pilbara iron ore miner Atlas Iron looks set to extend its infrastructure agreement in Port Hedland with junior Aurox Resources.... Read more Hopeful signs are emerging for GPT Group's Ayers Rock Resort, with Virgin Blue announcing it will begin direct flights to Uluru in August... Read more Law firm Maurice Blackburn and litigation funder IMF (Australia) are considering a shareholder class action against waste management company Transpacific Industries Group.... Read more The company charged with building the $43 billion national broadband network has been banned from actively poaching key executives.... Read more Healthscope remains coy about a bid for Japara Holdings, but private equity players show interest... Read more The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has set itself an April 28 deadline for ruling on the BHP-Rio Pilbara merger.... Read more Centrebet has become the first agency in Australia to offer betting on local financial markets, and it plans to expand into equity and commodity betting... Read more Jetset Travelworld joins a growing list of companies forced to defend their market disclosure practices to investors over the past six weeks... Read more Australian executives are continuing to grow more confident in 2010, indicating that they believe the worst of the global financial crisis is now behind them, according to a Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) survey... Read more Bow Energy Ltd has substantially increased its reserves but it is unlikely the coal seam gas (CSG) explorer will play a role in the booming sector's takeover action until it begins producing, an analyst says... Read more A new gold explorer has listed on the Australian Securities Exchange with plans to explore beneath old mines... Read more Redgroup Retail will begin selling electronic book readers and e-books within months in partnership with Canadian bookseller... Read more Workers at Woodside Petroleum's Pluto liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in Western Australia have been exposed to high levels of asbestos, a union says... Read more Prime Infrastructure Group has announced the resignation of chief executive Jeff Kendrew.... Read more Two directors of a company who cut their tax bills by $3.7 million through an offshore scheme found guilty of tax evasion.... Read more International Melbourne-based engineering company Meinhardt, which has been in family hands for more than 50 years, has been sold in a management buy-out.... Read more Broker and investment manager Wilson HTM Investment Group has appointed a new chief executive of its capital markets activities... Read more Stephen Bartholomeusz. Royal Dutch Shell has made no secret of its plans to build a four-train export LNG project in Queensland - but its ambition appears to be dependent on Arrow's coal seam gas acreage... Read more Adele Ferguson. The move by international heavyweights Dutch Shell Group and PetroChina to bid for Arrow Energy's Australian assets has done three things: put a rocket under the valuations of the coal seam gas sector; confirmed that the $30 billion-plus LNG projects will be consolidated; and made Arrow's biggest shareholder New Hope Coal pivotal to any deal... Read more Ian Verrender. Telstra shareholders enjoyed a brief moment in the sun yesterday. The telco giant's shares soared almost 1 per cent during the day, meaning it was no longer plumbing all time lows... Read more Andrew Main. From the breathless reporting of every IPO beauty parade and bookrunner appointment in the past couple of months, you'd think we're about to drown in new floats on the Australian sharemarket. We're not... Read more David Symons. Speculation that TPG Telecom would struggle to garner 75 per cent support from PIPE Networks shareholders for the proposed $373 million acquisition was enough to knock 20cents off the PIPE share price yesterday... Read more Ian McIlwraith. Plans by the Australian Securities Exchange to widen directors' share trading disclosures and curb insider trading may achieve the opposite of their aim and instead provoke speculative trading, a lobby group says... Read more Barry Fitzgerald. The Queensland government is sticking by its guns to float off a $3 billion stake in Queensland Rail (QR) before the end of the year - despite attempts by the state's big coal producers for the government to consider their alternative bid... Read more Bryan Frith. Shell's bid appears to indicate that it wants to commit to a major development... Read more
International Headlines U.S. Market Report. An updated report of the latest action on Wall Street... Read more World Market Report. An updated report of the worlds' latest market movements... Read more AIG sells an insurance group to rival MetLife for $US15.5bn, as it continues to raise funds to pay off a federal bail-out... Read more A year after the financial crisis hit its nadir and the market plunged to a 12-year low, U.S. stocks have recovered but investors remain wary.... Read more What economic crisis? After a blip last winter, China is growing at more than 8% a year, and the scale and speed at which the country is building a modern infrastructure are mind-boggling... Read more Europe may set up a version of the International Monetary Fund to bolster the eurozone's financial stability... Read more Portugal announces a series of new austerity measures as it seeks to avoid a debt crisis like the one in Greece... Read more ABB Ltd., Daimler AG, Fiat SpA and Europe's biggest companies hoarded more cash in 2009 than the previous three years as they curbed acquisitions to protect themselves against an economic slump... Read more Indian conglomerate Essar Group is reported to be planning to float on the London Stock Exchange, a move that could raise up to $US3bn... Read more The Australian dollar is being overtaken by the Canadian dollar among commodity currencies as the safety of Canada's banking system and ties with the U.S. economy spur investors to buy the loonie... Read more The U.K. takeover panel has received a complaint that US firm Kraft made misleading comments during its battle to take over Cadbury... Read more Daimler AG, the world's second-largest maker of luxury cars, is selling its 5.3 percent stake in Tata Motors Ltd. after more than five decades of ownership, according to a person familiar with the matter... Read more South Africa's main stock exchange is investigating whether ArcelorMittal South Africa Ltd., a unit of the world's biggest steelmaker, broke rules on disclosing information in handling its dispute with Kumba Iron Ore Ltd... Read more Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's biggest retailer, is bringing back some products it had removed from shelves last year as shoppers turn to competitors for a wider selection of merchandise... Read more Almost four in five people around the world believe that access to the internet is a fundamental right, a poll for the BBC World Service suggests... Read more In California's Napa Valley, producer of the most expensive U.S. wines, 2010 may be a vintage year for foreclosures as the industry is squeezed by falling land values and a consumer shift to cheaper brands... Read more Paul La Monica. There are two big investing anniversaries coming up, and they represent the best of those two opposing market forces: Fear and greed. It was almost a year ago that the stock market hit bottom... Read more
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