Stocks to watch: Air NZ, Fletcher Building, NZR

Thursday 22nd July 2010

Air New Zealand shares gain on tourism numbers, which are at their highest level in 12 months, Fletcher Building is likely to be affected by predicted weakening net migration and NZ Refining announced a drop in refining margins.

Air New Zealand (AIR): The national carrier gained 1.9% to $1.06 yesterday after figures showed New Zealand’s tourist numbers reached 2.5 million for the first time in a 12-month period in June, driven by visitors from Australian.

Fletcher Building (FBU): Economists at ANZ said weakening net migration is likely to undermine demand in the housing market. Shares of New Zealand’s biggest construction company rose 1 cent to $7.70 yesterday.

New Zealand Refining (NZR): The Marsden Point oil refinery operator yesterday announced a drop in refining margins to US$3.83 per barrel in May and June, following a recovery from last year's slump earlier in the year, on throughput of 6.4 million barrels. The shares fell 3.8% yesterday to $3.15.

OceanaGold (OGC): The gold miner yesterday released its second strong indication this month of extensions to known resources at its Frasers Underground mine in Otago. The company said early indications of new mineralization areas are "very encouraging”. The stock rose 1.6% to $3.91 yesterday.

Wellington Drive Technologies (WDT): The manufacturer and marketer of efficient electric motors said it has orders well above sales for the first time since 1998. Still, the company has hit some electronic component supply bottlenecks that limited its sales in the first half of the year, and may constrain sales in the second half, it said in a presentation to investors. The stock rose 2.4% to 8.6 cents yesterday.

Themes of the day: Stocks fell on Wall Street, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 1.1%, after Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke told the Senate Banking Committee that the outlook for the world's biggest economy was "unusually uncertain." The kiwi dollar dropped to 71.25 US cents from 71.85 cents after Bernanke's comments sapped investor appetite for risk.

Businesswire.co.nz

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