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ASB Securities Morning Brief for Wednesday, 10 March 2010
New Zealand Headlines The Minister of Commerce's decision to fast track KiwiSaver regulation is a "knee-jerk reaction", says the chairman of a superannuation industry body... Read more The Government is considering creating a new "super regulator" as it seeks to shore up confidence in the $4.88 billion KiwiSaver regime... Read more Donal Curtin's role at the Commerce Commission has been restricted, to prevent any conflict of interest after further private party court proceedings were filed against him... Read more An investment activist group says the Commerce Commission's actions to deal with Donal Curtin's alleged conflicts of interest do not go far enough and is calling for Commerce Minister Simon Power to suspend him from all duties.... Read more New Zealand's mid-range business sector is showing encouraging signs of increased activity as the economy emerges out of the recession, according to an ANZ survey... Read more Briscoe Group has powered its way through the past year, delivering an 80 per cent jump in profit to $21 million, although it is cautious about the remainder of this year... Read more Briscoe Group managing director Rod Duke said he is "cautiously optimistic" for trading in 2010 after the company almost doubled its annual profit by fattening its margins... Read more AXA chief executive Ralph Stewart has fronted up and admitted the savings industry and the government betrayed New Zealanders over the years.... Read more FAI Money, a finance company owned by Eric Watson and Mark Hotchin and once part of the Hanover Group, has told investors it will repay them early and will no longer take deposits as of March 22... Read more A $220 million writedown by Allied Farmers of its recently acquired Hanover/United investments portfolio may not necessarily result in zero value being extracted from those positions, McDouall Stuart said in its market weekly update... Read more Canadian firm Rogers Communications says it is not in the running to buy Telecom International, a division of Telecom that buys and sells capacity on international phone networks for about 300 carriers... Read more NZX expects 50% of its future revenues to come from fees on clearing and settlement services and high margins obtainable from derivatives trading, according to a presentation by head of traded products, Fiona Mackenzie, to investors in Wellington... Read more New Zealanders spent less on debit and credit cards in February, the first decline in eight months, which may stoke speculation the central bank will be inclined to hold off on raising interest rates until the second half of the year... Read more Directors of the listed electricity network monopoly Horizon Energy Distribution are under investigation by the Takeovers Panel, following allegations of takeovers code breaches by a jilted suitor, Marlborough Lines... Read more Postie Plus Group expects a "tidy profit" this year, after narrowing its first-half loss by gaining market share and lifting sales... Read more The property empire of Sir Bob Jones is chasing more rent owed by the last surviving arm of Mark Bryers' business.... Read more Plus SMS Holdings, the mobile phone content provider suspended by the NZX last June, has been further reprimanded for improper reporting to the stock exchange with a $50,000 fine for rule breaches... Read more The government should get rid of gift duty or at the very least review the threshold says the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants (NZICA)... Read more The New Zealand dollar held at a two-week high of about 70 US cents against a backdrop of more upbeat US economic data and signs of stability in Europe... Read more Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee has rejected calls to regulate the installation of new "smart meters" in homes... Read more Sky Television will end UHF pay-television transmissions at midnight tonight, switching off a service once used by hundreds of thousands of households... Read more New Zealand's box office bonanza shows no sign of waning. Weekly cinema takings are up to 50 per cent higher this year compared with 2009, while Alice in Wonderland has recorded one of the biggest weekend takings in New Zealand history... Read more Fran O'Sullivan. The Hanover Finance and Huljich KiwiSaver affairs point up the pressing need for a "super-regulator" with the authority, budget and, importantly, guts to not only enforce existing regulations but publicly hang the miscreants out to dry... Read more NZ Market Report. New Zealand's NZX 50 Index snapped a nine-day rally, with the US market providing little overnight impetus and commodity prices weakening. Property for Industry and Pan Pacific Petroleum led the decline... Read more
Australian Headlines Australian Market Report. Shares log their eighth straight session of gains to close moderately higher after stronger than expected economic indicators turned around early losses... Read more Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina's joint tilt for Arrow Energy could be followed up by a $1.3 billion bid for AGL's gas assets.... Read more Property investors have returned in force to Australia's major capital cities... Read more A former Macquarie Bank portfolio manager has pleaded guilty to a charge of breaching court orders, after trying to leave the country... Read more The liquidator of Bill Express will seek an arrest warrant for former director Julian Little if he refuses to leave Dubai to appear in a Melbourne court... Read more Business confidence returned to its November high last month, as trading conditions and profitability improved, according to a key National Australia Bank survey... Read more There was a significant rebound in the number of jobs advertised on the internet and in major metropolitan newspapers last month... Read more Surf and boardsports retailer Billabong hits back at $US153 million lawsuit by former Indonesian licensee... Read more The Coalition formalises its opposition to government plans to split Telstra but has an open mind on other aspects of the consumer safeguards laws... Read more Share investors piled into Centrebet yesterday as three British gaming companies loomed as potential bidders... Read more Constellation Brands lays off 40 staff at its SA bottling headquarters as it shifts more production to Britain... Read more The global financial crisis hit younger Australians the hardest, with new data showing Gen Y got the lowest salary increases... Read more Kerry Stokes's $3 billion bid to combine Seven with his industrial equipment business WesTrac has received a positive report from Macquarie.... Read more The corporate regulator has received complaints about half of the nation's registered insolvency practitioners in the past three and a half years... Read more Former ANZ Bank senior executive Steve Targett appears to have walked away empty-handed from his three-year battle... Read more Former Allco employees will have their day in court when a judge rules on which company employed the staffers seeking unpaid entitlements... Read more Investors with self-managed superannuation funds say they will continue to hold a big proportion of their portfolios... Read more The director of a Victorian finance company that collapsed owing investors nearly $60 million told a client it was a "money-printing factory" paying returns of around 200 per cent, court documents show... Read more A private iron ore company is positioning itself as a key player in Western Australia's emerging Mid-West region as it goes public with its ambitious plans and flags it could have the largest single deposit in the area.... Read more Dourado Resources is planning to spin off its uranium assets into a separate listed entity, just three months after its own public float... Read more OZ Minerals has extended its copper reach into Latin America... Read more Chinese-owned Minerals and Metals Group has no plans to restart its Avebury nickel mine, closed in 2008 due to depressed markets, predicting recent gains in nickel prices will be short-lived... Read more Atlas Iron Ltd has reported a sharp rise in first half revenue and narrowed its net loss as it continues to develop its second mine... Read more Matt Stevens. Like Margaret Thatcher, Anna Bligh is patently not one for the old U-turn. On Monday evening Queensland's Premier summarily rejected a proposal that a collective representing 99 per cent of her state's coal exports might buy the freight rail network their custom supports... Read more Elizabeth Knight. Yesterday outside Brisbane's Parliament a mob of unhappy unionists was protesting about the prospect of privatisation - in particular the public sale of Queensland Rail... Read more Malcolm Maiden. There's a disconnect between the offer Shell and its partner, PetroChina, have made for the Queensland coal seam gas company Arrow Energy and the prices that were paid in the past for similar coal seam reserves owned by Arrow, Santos, Origin and other Australian groups... Read more Bryan Frith. Whether or not the Full Federal Court was right in its recent controversial ruling that funded class actions constitute managed investment schemes (MIS) the consequences that flow from the decision cannot have been the intention of the legislature... Read more Stephen Bartholomeusz. The proposed takeover of Arrow Energy by Shell and PetroChina looks like it might run afoul of Australia's foreign investment regulator. However, the suitors may have an ace up their sleeves... Read more Robert Gottliebsen. While markets in the US and Australia herald economic recovery, the behaviour of our banks - especially toward retailers and property developers - tells a very different story... 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 Angela Merkel calls for limits on financial speculators who have been blamed for worsening Greece's financial woes.... Read more China's inflation probably accelerated and exports climbed in February, according to surveys of economists, increasing the likelihood of the central bank raising interest rates from a five-year low... Read more The UK goods trade deficit with the rest of the world widens unexpectedly in January, with imports rising faster than exports... Read more Brussels says it hopes European aerospace group EADS was not prevented from fairly bidding for a major US defence deal.... Read more Job openings in the U.S. rose in January to the highest level in almost a year, signaling employers are gaining confidence as the economic recovery takes hold... Read more The pound's drop last week to a 10-month low may help the U.K. economy grow faster than the region sharing the euro, which is hobbled by budget deficits and aging populations, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc... Read more Toyota has rejected claims that faulty electronics are behind its worldwide recall of more than eight million cars... Read more The driver of a Toyota Prius says he was taken on a wild ride after the car's accelerator became stuck, reaching speeds in excess of 145kph... Read more Cadillac, the luxury brand General Motors Co. acquired in 1909, is distancing itself from the Detroit-based automaker to avoid the stigma of the parent company's $US50 billion U.S.-backed bankruptcy last year... Read more Exxon Mobil Corp., BP Plc and Total SA are investing in assets that previously weren't worth their time or money after oil-rich nations reduced access to reserves and exploration drilling faltered... Read more Ethanol, the commodity that cost Bill Gates more than $44 million the last time prices collapsed, is poised to rally as much as 20 percent as the fastest drop since 2008 spurs demand.... Read more Chile's strongest earthquake in 50 years may bankrupt smaller winemakers after vines collapsed, casks broke apart and millions of liters were spilled, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker-turned-winemaker said... Read more The Brazilian government has announced trade sanctions against a variety of American goods in retaliation for illegal US subsidies to cotton farmers... Read more Brookfield Asset Management Inc., owner of a stake in the U.K.'s tallest building, is about to start constructing an even higher tower in the City of London... Read more Sanofi-Aventis SA and Merck & Co. will combine their veterinary medicine units to create the world's largest animal health business with combined sales of more than $US5 billion and 14,000 employees... Read more
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