New Zealand’s ministers and officials have been given a new set of rules outlining how they can talk about listed companies as the government gets ready to kick off its partial privatisation programme this year. Public service bosses, government ministers and their staff, and state sector spin doctors and legal teams have been told they need to treat information about …

Trading on the NZX’s cash markets jumped by a quarter in December, led by a surge in turnover of stocks as the NZX 50 Index rounded out its best year since 2004. Total trades rose 24.3 percent to 78,408 last month from a year earlier, while the value of trading soared 61 percent to $3.6 billion. Equity transactions climbed 27 …

The New Zealand dollar was little changed above 83 US cents as the US debt ceiling remains in focus and with little local data to drive the currency forward. The New Zealand dollar traded at 83.08 US cents from 83.18 cents in New York on Friday. The trade-weighted index eased to 74.88 from 74.99. On Saturday, US President Barack Obama …