NZX CLOSE: 7th day of gains; RBD jumps, SPY, TEL rise

Thursday 4th March 2010

New Zealand’s benchmark NZX 50 Index rounded out its seventh day of gains after Restaurant Brands said annual profit beat its own forecast and Telecom climbed from near a record low.

The NZX 50 rose 15.03, or 0.5% to 3213.55. Within the index, 30 shares rose, 10 fell and 10 were unchanged. Turnover was $76.4 million.

Restaurant Brands (NZX: RBD ) which holds the franchise for KFC, Pizza Hut and Starbucks coffee outlets, climbed 8.8% to $1.98, having touched a 7 ½-year high $2.03 in intraday trading. Full-year profit excluding non trading items was about $19.5 million, beating the company’s Nov. 30 forecast of $17.5 million on KFC sales and a renegotiated supplier contract.

“They are doing a lot of the basics right,” said Craig Brown, who helps manage $3.3 billion at ING New Zealand. “Conditions are tough and people are going to KFC rather than restaurants but there’s more to it than that. They are being a lot smarter running the business.”

Kathmandu Holdings (NZX: KMD ), the outdoor equipment retailer with stores in Australia, climbed 3.7% to $2.23 as the kiwi dollar weakened further against its Australian counterpart. A weaker currency makes New Zealand products more competitive in the nation’s biggest market.

“It’s a key swing factor for a lot of companies and for New Zealand Inc.,” ING’s Brown said. The expanding Australian economy “means our guys have got a market to sell into.”

Fletcher Building (NZX: FBU ), which sells steel products, insulation, laminated board and concrete in Australia, edged up 0.3% to $8.12.

Telecom (NZX: TEL ) rose 2.3% to 2.3% to $2.26, having sunk as low as $2.18 this week amid further fallout from outages on its XT network, including a decision by Wellington’s district health board to suspend its contract.

SmartPay (NZX: SPY ), the EFTPOS company that acquired assets from the failed ProvencoCadmus group, rose 5% to 4 cents after announcing that it expects to make an underlying profit this year and is working through its existing debt facilities as it prepares to expand. EBITDA will be $1.5 million to $2 million in the 12 months through March, compared to a loss of $2.5 million a year earlier.

Pyne Gould Corp (NZX: PGC ) gained 2.3% to 45 cents. The finance group’s announcement last week of a return to profit with first-half earnings of $10.1m was encouraging as it was in line with its prospectus forecast of last year, apart from the one-time charge for an irregular loan at MARAC, McDouall Stuart said in a report.

Fisher & Paykel Appliances (NZX: FPA ) rose 1.6% to 63 cents and Sky City Entertainment Group (NZX: SKY ), which has benefited from stronger results from its casinos in Adelaide and Darwin, climbed 1.6% to 3.26.

Air New Zealand (NZX: AIR ) rose 1.5% to $1.32 and New Zealand Refining (NZX: NZR ) climbed 1.5% to $3.30.

Pan Pacific Petroleum (NZX: PPP ) which has flip-flopped between being the biggest gainer and biggest decliner on the index, dropped 6.1% to 31 cents.

Businesswire.co.nz

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