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New Zealand shares rose in relatively light trading, the positive tone led by high-yielding retailer Pumpkin Patch and the country’s largest construction company, Fletcher Building. The NZX 50 Index rose 22.16 points, or 0.53 percent, to 4153.91 at 5pm. Within the index, 26 stocks rose, while 10 fell, leaving 14 unchanged. Turnover was $69.0 million in light early new year …

The New Zealand dollar nudged higher on Monday after falling late last week and a test of higher levels is in prospect this week if data is supportive. The kiwi was at 84.02 US cents at 5pm, up from 83.71 US cents at 8am but still down from 84.25 US cents at 5pm on Friday. The NZIER business confidence survey …

The price of internet connection to the rest of the world is dropping again as New Zealand’s only international cable owner, Southern Cross Cables, announces a 20 percent cut in its capacity prices. However, critics of the single carrier say it should be cutting its fees much harder to encourage the uptake of fast internet services which government policies have …

The former owners of Blue Star Group have swallowed a $173 million goodwill write-off and don’t look to be getting much from the sale of assets as the Australasian printing company is broken up. But the future of New Zealand’s largest commercial printer has been secured with the sale of the business to Australian private equity firm Mercury Capital and …

The supply of rental properties nationwide continues to outpace demand, Trade Me Property reported today in their analysis of 2012’s final quarter. critical essay definition However, the property listing service suggested some potential home buyers may be driven into the rental market as the supply of properties for sale flattens out. Trade Me Property compares the numbers of properties listed …

Canterbury stands out in the latest Westpac McDermott Miller employment confidence survey, in which confidence overall stalled. The Westpac McDermott Miller Employment Confidence Index rose to 99.1 in the December 2012 quarter from 98.9 in the September quarter. Canterbury registered an index of 113.5, up from 110.9, and the highest of the regions surveyed. “Employment confidence in Canterbury has risen …

ew Zealand Oil & Gas’s pursuit of a more diversified global portfolio will take an important step with the spudding of the Parit Minyak-2 well onshore in Sumatra, Indonesia in a little under a fortnight. NZOG has a 22.5 percent interest in the Kisaran block, in the prolifically productive central Sumatran region. The planned well, to which NZOG will contribute …

Former National Bank chairman John Anderson concluded Timaru businessman Allan Hubbard had misled investors in his tangled affairs, in a report written shortly before Hubbard’s death in a car accident in September 2011. The report by Anderson and Deloitte insolvency specialist Rod Pardington has been released after a 16 month wait that included an appeal to the Ombudsman’s Office, which …

US fourth-quarter earnings season picks up speed in the coming days with some of the major banks reporting. A slew of banks are set to report this week, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley. Earnings for financial companies in the S&P 500 grew 16 percent in the fourth-quarter, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. …

BLUE SKIES AHEAD? Markets have started the year on a reasonably positive note. Linked to this are positive signs from China , the side-stepping of the US fiscal crevasse, with the Japanese government announcing ¥10.3tr in stimulus measures thrown in for good measure. There are casualties from this financial market exuberance and we sympathise with NZ exporters battling the high NZD. …