Stocks to watch: Cynotech, NZ Refining, Pulse

Stocks to watch: Cynotech, NZ Refining, Pulse Utilities

Dec. 21 (BusinessWire) – The following stocks may be active on the New Zealand exchange after developments since the close of trading yesterday. All prices are in New Zealand dollars unless specified.

Themes of the day: Statistics New Zealand is gearing up for the last major round of data releases ahead of the Christmas holiday. Figures tomorrow may show the current account deficit shrank as a percentage of GDP in the third quarter, while economic growth accelerated to a quarterly pace of 0.4% from 0.1% in the second quarter. Out today are migration and tourism for November.

Allied Farmers (ALF): The finance group sank to a record-low 13 cents during intraday trading on Friday. The company said it had satisfied key conditions of its proposal to acquire Hanover Finance’s assets. Investors in Hanover and United Finance last week agreed to accept 1.9 billion Allied shares for their financial assets. Allied current has about 38 million shares on issue.

Cynotech Holdings (CYT): Cynotech Securities, a company associated with major shareholder Allan Hawkins, on Friday made an offer to acquire the company in exchange for preference shares in Cynotech Securities that pay 8% annual interest. Each CSGL preference share has an attributed value of 13.5 cents, the company said. Cynotech Holdings stock was last at 11.5 cents.

New Zealand Oil & Gas (NZO): Crude oil rose Iranian forces occupied moved troops across the border, occupying an oil well south of Baghdad. Crude oil for January delivery reached US$73.36 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The shares rose 2 cents to $1.68 on Friday.

NZ Refining (NZR): The shares tumbled 7.7% to $3.60 on Friday, the second daily slide after the nation’s only oil refinery forecast profit of $10 million to $20 million this calendar year and said its gross refining margin shrank to US$1.16 in September and October from US$9.35 at the beginning of the year. “There remains considerable uncertainty with respect to our final result", the company said.

Pulse Utilities Ltd. (PLU): The smart meter developer and start-up electricity retailer on Friday said it raised $4.3 million in private placements to 18 investors, including prominent racehorse owner Robert Famularo, CallPlus founder Malcolm Dick, and Buller Electricity Ltd. The shares last traded at 50 cents. Pulse plans to launch electricity retailing on the West Coast in the Buller company's network

(BusinessWire)

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