The Environmental Defence Society is calling for the government to scrap its draft regulations governing deep sea oil exploration on the same day as Texan oil explorer Anadarko said it was plugging and abandoning the first of the two deepwater wells it’s drilling this summer. While there were some oil and gas shows in the Romney-1 well, drilled in 1.5 …

The New Zealand sharemarket dropped to a four-week low, tracking a decline on Wall Street, after a report showed US manufacturing activity grew at the slowest pace in eight months, fuelling concern about global growth. New Zealand’s benchmark NZX 50 Index fell 58.331 points, or 1.2 percent, to 4,791.171 in morning trading. In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average …

Landcorp Farming, which manages 137 farms, more than tripled first-half profit as record milk prices drove up dairy income and said earnings will hold up for the rest of the year. Separately, chairman Bill Baylis announced plans to resign from the board. Operating profit rose to $12.2 million in the six months ended Dec. 31 from $2.5 million a year …