MARKET CLOSE: NZ shares slip on Fletcher outlook

MARKET CLOSE: NZ shares slip on Fletcher outlook; STU, PGW fall

Nov. 11 (BusinessWire) – New Zealand shares fell, ending three days of gains, after Fletcher Building said earnings may be at the low end of forecasts and there’s no sign yet of recovery in its markets. Steel & Tube Holdings paced the decline.

The NZX 50 Index fell 5.86, or 0.2%, to 3161.54. Within the index, 29 stocks fell, 13 rose and eight were unchanged. Turnover was $70.4 million.

Fletcher, the biggest company on the NZX 50, declined 1.1% to $7.95, trimming its advance in the past three months to about 15%.

“We remain cautious with respect to trading conditions for the balance of 2010,” Fletcher chairman Rod Deane told shareholders of the construction and building products company today. “While volumes in most markets have been relatively stable over the past few months, we have yet to see any significant signs of a recovery in any of our markets.” He said any economic recovery will be “gradual.”

Steel & Tube, which supplies steel building products such as reinforcing rods, sank 3.4% to $3.10. Nuplex Industries, the specialty chemicals maker, dropped 1.5% to $2.59.

Methven Ltd., which makes bathroom fittings and tapware, fell 6.6% to $1.55, leading the index lower.

OceanaGold Corp., operator of the Macraes gold field in Otago, jumped 5.9% to $1.80, extending its gain yesterday, when the company raised its estimate of reserves at Macraes by 42%.

PGG Wrightson, the nation’s biggest rural services company, fell 3.1% to 62 cents after the Reserve Bank’s financial stability report, released today, highlighted the high levels of debt over some dairy farms, which may force farmers to sell up.

NZ Farming Systems Uruguay, which is developing dairy farms in South America using intensive New Zealand farming techniques, fell 2.2% to 44 cents.

Rakon Ltd., which makes crystal oscillators used in navigation systems and mobile phones, declined 1.7% to $1.17 ahead of the company’s first-half earnings this week.

AMP NZ Office Trust fell 2.5% to 77 cents, leading declines in property investment companies after Kermadec Property Fund yesterday posted a 17.5% decline in first-half profit and said it doesn’t expect a pick-up in New Zealand’s economic recovery until the second half of 2010.

Kermadec slipped about 2% to 50 cents, Property for Industry fell 2.5% to $1.18 and National Property Trust declined 2% to 49 cents.

(BusinessWire)

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