Restaurant Brand leads market higher

Midday update

Restaurant Brands, the fast-food chain with an average ‘outperform’ rating, led gainers on the NZX 50 Index, while Pan Pacific Petroleum and Nuplex Industries declined.

The NZX 50 was unchanged at midday at 3321.06, holding near an 18 month high.

Restaurant Brands, which this month posted a 137 per cent gain in annual profit as it reined in costs, gained 2.2 per cent to $2.31.

Pan Pacific Petroleum fell 7.5 per cent to 37 cents after a strengthening greenback capped gains in the price of crude oil. Nuplex Industries dropped 2.1 per cent to $3.28.

Millennium & Copthorne Hotels NZ tumbled 6.7 per cent to 42 cents after the hotel investor disclosed further unauthorised sales from a joint venture in China and said senior executives are on route to try to sort out the mess.

Telecom rose 0.9 per cent to $2.20, clawing back a part of yesterday’s drop, when it cut earnings guidance and announced job cuts. The nation’s biggest phone company, hurt by outages on its XT network and changes to the Telecommunications Service Obligation, got better news today when the regulator made a favourable ruling on its VDSL platform.

The Commerce Commission confirmed its decision to allow Telecom to offer new services on a VDSL platform outside existing regulation covering the fixed-line broadband market.

Skellerup Holdings shares didn’t immediately change hands when a trading halt lifted this morning, having reached a 14-month high of 63 cents yesterday. The agricultural and rubber goods manufacturer today said managing director Donald Stewart will leave after 18 years in the job.

Air New Zealand  said two Auckland-to-London flights today may be disrupted because of disruptions to air traffic due to ash from Iceland’s volcano. Its shares last traded at $1.42.

The property market remained subdued last month, according to the latest Real Estate Institute figures, with March sales up a seasonally adjusted 0.9 per cent from February. March is typically one of the strongest months of the year, and turnover has stayed flat after a decline at the start of the year.

Still, prices remained resilient, with the national median price at $360,500, up from $350,000 in February, and the number of days to sell shortened to a seasonally adjusted 38 in March from 39 a month earlier.

The kiwi dollar traded at US71.23c, little changed from US71.18c last yesterday. The trade weighted index, or TWI, was at 65.82 from 65.87.

Rural Portfolio Capital, a unit of Baird McConnon and Craig Norgate’s investment company, has breached the terms of its Security Trust Deed after making its six-monthly dividend payment yesterday.

The payment on its $60 million of redeemable preference shares drained the funds from the company’s Dividend Escrow Account, which is required to at all times hold enough to meet its next obligation, in this case the dividend due on Oct. 15. Under the deed, it has 30 days to remedy the breach.

The Commerce Commission today said the Supreme Court has overturned previous court rulings allowing the regulator to pursue individuals living overseas who are alleged to have breached the Commerce Act.

The case relates to three remaining defendants in a wood chemicals cartel case, who were living overseas when the cartel was operating. “Today’s ruling which overturns those previous judgments will be studied by the Commission in order to consider the full implications of the judgment,” said chairman Mark Berry.

- BusinessDesk