Stocks to watch: NZOG, Telecom, Sanford outlook

Stocks to watch: NZOG, Telecom, Sanford outlook

June 23 – The following stocks may be active on the New Zealand exchange after developments since the close of trading yesterday.

Themes of the day: Shares tumbled on Wall Street and in Europe after the World Bank lowered its forecast for global growth this year. The global economy may contract 2.9% in 2009, worse than the 1.7% pace the bank forecast in March. Prices of oil and metals tumbled and the U.S. dollar strengthened.

New Zealand Oil & Gas (NZO): Crude oil for July delivery fell 2.4% to US$67.89 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after the World Bank predicted a larger contraction in the global economy than it had previously estimated. NZOG’s shares fell 1 cent to NZ$1.58 yesterday.

New Zealand Refining (NZR): The nation’s only oil refinery rose 2.6% to $7 yesterday, recovering some of the ground it lost on Friday as investors speculate about Shell New Zealand’s plans to sell its 17% stake.

Nuplex Industries (NPX): Investors who bought deeply discounted shares in the manufacturer of specialty chemicals at 23 cents apiece in April are sitting on a 75% gain. The company’s stock, which was consolidated this month on a one-for-four basis, traded at NZ$1.61 yesterday, having recovered since the company used the capital raised to repay debt and strengthen its balance sheet.

Sanford Ltd. (SAN): The fishing company was cut to ‘sell’ by Goldman Sachs JBWere analyst Adrian Allbon, according to the ShareChat website. The company’s earnings are driven by fish prices, the level of the kiwi dollar and the price of oil, and Allbon expects all three factors to work against Sanford. He raised his forecast for adjusted annual net profit by 4% to NZ$44.2 million, while cutting his 2010 estimate by 6% to NZ$35.8 million. The shares rose 0.9% to NZ$5.55 yesterday.

Telecom Corp. (TEL): Minister for Communications and Information Technology Steven Joyce will provide an update of the government’s broadband rollout plans at the annual Tel.Con conference today, the NZ Herald reported. Joyce's office said a report to the Cabinet on submissions to the plan is due in the next few weeks, a month later than planned. The shares were unchanged at NZ$2.61 yesterday.

Widespread Energy Ltd. (WEN): The company said it was encouraged by progress on its application to mine seabed deposits of rock phosphate, used to make fertilizer, on the Chatham Rise east of New Zealand. Widespread Energy owns 90% of a joint venture with Widespread Portfolios (WID) that initially made the application in 2007. Market prices for rock phosphate have soared to US$375 a tone fromUS$50 a tone in the past two years, it said. WEN trades infrequently and was last at 9 cents on May 1. WID traded at 20 cents on June 19.

(BusinessWire)

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