COMMERCIAL Review Of Week’s Stock Exchange Transactions

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30593, 9 November 1964, Page 17

COMMERCIAL Review Of Week’s Stock Exchange Transactions

Recovery by New Zealand leaders on Thursday and Friday gave a late lift to share trading last week, but the firming tendency came too late to reverse the easier tone set earlier in the week.

On the week, falls by New Zealand issues were just ahead of rises, while overseas shares were in balance. Key New Zealand stocks showed rises barely ahead of falls.

Trading started the week quietly, on a steady note, but the next day the market was the busiest for some weeks. Second-rank issues lost ground on Wednesday, giving an easier tone to trading.

Key New Zealand stocks i surging ahead on Thursday, ] showing two rises to every j fall, gave a lift to the market, i New Zealand leaders followed the same pattern on Friday, but fluctuations were narrow- j er. j Turn-over for the week was , the highest since mid-Septem- j her and issues traded ranged j wide. New Zealand industrials and retailers showed the highest turn-over for several weeks. ! Dominion Peak ! There was only a moderate j demand for breweries, but Do- ] minion recovered to its peak of 18s 6d, while Taranaki sold , 2d up at Us 9d ex dividend. ' New Zealand Breweries edged back Id to 14s lid. Frozen meats were a little ‘ uncertain. Canterbury Frozen 1 Meat continued to move up, adding another 3d to 52s 9d. Gear slipped back 3d to 245, while South Otago lost 9d to 39s 9d. Bank of New South Wales, j up 3d to 57s 9d. and New Zea- j land register up 6d at 58s. ( continued to advance, but j A.N.Z. Bank, 3d down at 55s j 9d, and National Bank of New j Zealand, Is 3d lower at 42s 9d, lost ground gained the ( week before. Insurances j Insurances were also un- ] steady. New Zealand Insur- j ance old, B and C shares edged upwards slightly, but ( South British old and B eased ( and National dropped back Is , to 295. There was hesitancy, too, in the loan and agency section. ' Farmers’ Auctioneering, up 7d ’ at 30s ex dividend, made the 1 only worthwhile rise in this section. ‘ New Zealand industrials and 1 retailers showed some worth- : while gains. Among these was 1 Floor Tiles, 3s up at 43s 6d making a 10s 6d rise since early August. There was interest in mass media stocks, with rises for 1 television and newspaper ' shares. 1 Autocrat regained ground i with a 5d rise to 18s 6d, Group Rental notes sold 6d up at 20s : 6d, and Pye Electronics re- i covered Is lost the week be- i fore in sales at 225. Wellington Publishing, in : first sales for some weeks, 1

advanced 3s 9d to 85s and held this level in sales later in the week. Wilson and Horton continued to recover with a 9d rise to 365. During the week United Publishing announced results for the latest year showing a 57 per cent profit rise to £58,755. This, along with higher dividend news, lifted the company’s unlisted shares by 6d to 5s 6d. Other good gains were made by George Court, John Chambers, Watties, Marine Packers, Norvic, Ross and Glendining, Smith and Brown, and Winstone. Fluctuations among Australian industrials and retailers were mainly narrow. C.S.R., E.Z. Industries, LC.I.A.N.Z. and Waltons again edged back. Watties Year Higher costs and price wars, which at times forced prices down almost to unprofitable levels, still did not deter J. Wattie Canneries from achieving a profit of £318,679 —a rise of 31 per cent in the last year. Greater exports by the company during the year enabled Watties to take advantage of the export incentive scheme and this helped lower taxation by £lOOO to £250,500. A steady dividend of 11 per cent takes £141,900 and is covered more than twice by profit. Increases to the can-making plant raised its capacity to the production of 1080 cans a minute. New additions to buildings and plant at Hastings and Gisborne are well under way and will be finished before the peak of the new season. Taranaki Brew. Taranaki Brewery’s latest profit of £40,023 announced during the week is a record and is £7639 higher than last year’s. Dividend, increased to 9 per cent from 8} per cent, absorbs £22,950 and is covered 1.8 times by profit. Fropax cash bid for Frozen Products brought strong market reaction. The 5s shares

sold in Christchurch on Tuesday for 4s Id, but rose to 5s 6d on Thursday and Friday. This is still 3d below the value of the offer: 5s 9d for each 5s share. A preliminary statement by directors of Frozen Products showed that the company had made a further loss of £69,490. subject to audit, in the latest year. Reserves last year stood at £59.932 after meeting the loss of £31,116. The appropriation account then had a deficit of £48.362. Directors of Fropax say that the two companies have been closely associated for several years distributing frozen foods and ice cream in New Zealand. They consider that co-ord-ination of the companies’ activities under one ownership would be advantageous. Not Disclosed Evans Atlas has not yet disclosed the terms of its offer for J. R. Bruce but shareholders will be asked to approve the move at an extraordinary meeting later this month. If the take-over becomes unconditional Evans Atlas proposes to capitalise £22,500 from pre-1957 profits and a similar amount from a land and building revaluation reserve for a three-for-five bonus issue. Buoyant trading conditions and record sales allowed Mosgiel to recover ground lost last year with a record profit of £47,621 in its latest year. Last year, profit slumped to £24.506 from £41,370 in 1962. The higher profit covers the dividend, restored to 10 per cent from 8 per cent, 1.7 times. Listing Moves In a move designed to correct anomalies which have arisen in the last few years, the Stock Exchange Association of New Zealand has sent new listing requirements to listed companies. October 31 of next year is the date set by which all listed companies must comply with the listing requirements as far as is legally possible. Companies must sign a new agreement. Under the present arrangement, companies listed some years ago do not have to immediately notify the Stock Exchange of dividend or capital moves. However, companies listed since the new agreement of May, 1962, must notify the exchange of any such move as soon as it is made. The listing agreement has been redrafted so that it covers all the listed securities of each signing company and will not need to be completed for each class of security listed.

This move by the association puts into effect resolutions carrietl at its last annual meeting. Some listed companies may not be able to comply fully at present because of particu-

lar provisions in their articles of association but reasonable time will be allowed for them to bring their articles into line.

In such cases an undertaking will be required that the articles will be amended at the first reasonable opportunity. Yields on Government stock traded in Christchurch last week were:—4 5-8 per cent 15/11/65-66, £4 6s 3d per cent; 4| per cent 15/6/65, £4 5s per cent: 15/11/65, £4 5s 9d per cent; 5 per cent 15/8/67-69, £4 Us lOjd per cent. Transactions last week on the Christchurch Stock Exchange were: Government stock, £2900 (£6410 previous week); local body and company debentures, £5BOO (£1550); preference, 6732 (166); banks, 1979 (1185); breweries. 2688 (6374); building societies, 97 (nil); frozen meat, 2351 (1000); insurances,

1800 (3348): loan and agency, 11,162 (8297); shipping, 1050 (100); woollens, 9700 (4200); Australian miscellaneous, 8112 (8866); New Zealand miscellaneous, 38,101 (12,189); mining, 200 (nil): unlisted, 582 (250); total, 83,554 (46,075).

Business Personal

Mr J. Carney, general manager, and Mr E. J. Melrose have resigned from the board of directors of the New Zealand Refining Company, Ltd. Mr J. A. Ferguson and Mr W. A. Dobson have been appointed to the board and will retire at the company’s annual meeting on December 2.

Alex Harvey.— Alex Harvey and Sons, Ltd., will pay a steady 5 per cent ordinary interim and 3 per cent preference interim dividend on December 1, ex dividend November 19. (P.A.)