Stocks to watch: Contact, Goodman Property, KMD, Wrightson

Tuesday 24th November 2009

The following stocks may be active on the New Zealand exchange after developments since the close of trading yesterday.

Themes of the day: Stocks rallied in the U.S. and Europe after U.S. home sales climbed. Prices of crude oil, gold and metals rallied and the U.S. dollar weakened.

Cavotec MSL Holdings Ltd (NZX: CCC ): The mooring equipment and airport ground-handling equipment group said its quarterly order intake fell 21% to 28 million euros in the third quarter from a year earlier, though orders picked up compared to the second quarter. The company singled out its airport market unit as a growth engine, after it won orders from the U.S. Air Force and commercial airports in the Middle East. The shares fell 6 cents to $2.64 yesterday.

Contact Energy (NZX: CEN ): The biggest utility on the NZX 50 and rival utility TrustPower (TPW) received a formal warning from the Commerce Commission over allegedly anti-competitive behaviour during the tender of a power station near Nelson in 2002. The warning followed an investigation into possible bid-rigging. The Cobb hydroelectric power station was subsequently acquired by TrustPower for $92.5million in 2003. Contact rose 4 cents to $5.95 yesterday and TrustPower was unchanged at $7.45.

Goodman Property Trust (NZX: GMT ): The property investors is rated ‘outperform’ by First NZ Capital analyst Jason Lindsay, according to the ShareChat website. Lindsay said a shortfall in first-half earnings due to rent reviews should be made up in the second half. The trust’s units fell 1 cent to $1.03 yesterday.

Kathmandu Ltd (NZX: KMD ): The outdoor equipment retailer entered the NZX 50 yesterday, forcing index-weighted funds to add the stock to their holdings. The shares slipped 0.9% to $2.15 yesterday. Kathmandu replaced tapmaker Methven Ltd. in the benchmark index. Methven fell 2% to $1.46 yesterday.

PGG Wrightson (NZX: PGW ): The nation’s biggest rural services company yesterday said it had completed the placement of 41.1 million shares at 88 cents each to Agria, raising $36 million. Agria will become Wrightson’s biggest shareholder once all its capital-raising plans are completed. The shares rose 4.7% to 67 cents yesterday.

Postie Plus Group Ltd (NZX: PPG ): The clothing and baby-ware chain 18% owned by Kathmandu founder Jan Cameron posted a 15% increase in sales in the first quarter, putting it on track for a narrower first-half loss than last year’s $2.6 million loss. The shares rose 2.6% to 40 cents yesterday.

Businesswire.co.nz

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