COMMERCIAL Review Of Week’s Stock Exchange Transactions
Gently ebbing and flowing, the tide of share trading laps the beach and then seems to recede just a little farther, making it hard to see just when it might turn.
Late last week there was some steadying as the market for New Zealand shares improved, but it is too soon to tell if the tide is near the turn.
Lack of ready money and uncertainty are upsetting the market in New Zealand while in Australia and the United States there have been some sharp setbacks.
On Tuesday the New York stock market encountered its sharpest drop since June last year.
Dow Jones index of industrials averages fell 13.59 points, then lost six more points the next day. And this not so long after the index had crashed through the 100.00 barrier for the first time. B.H.P. Cutback Tn Australia 8.H.P., in a supplementary report, announced that it might have to cut back steel production because demand had dropped. This news unsettled Australian industrial shares generally. Drought effects are now beginning to be noticed and other factors are upsetting the market in Australia. The decline in New Zealand stocks was checked on Thursday as the market came into balance, and on Friday there were more rises than falls. On the week the gap between rises and falls by New Zealand stocks narrowed, but the market was still weak. Turn-over was lower than the week before, but the range of issues traded was wider. Recoveries made up a lot of the advances on the week and the market is still at a lower level. Early Brothers Early Brothers last week announced consolidated profit before audit of £19,908—17.4 per cent higher than the £16.963 earned the year before. Profit, for the year to December 31 last, takes in for the first time results of Ethicals, Ltd., an Auckland company making and dealing in intravenous solutions, transfusion sets and ampoules, taken over in 1964. Terms of the deal were four Early Brothers’ 4s shares for each 20s share in Ethicals. The deal involved the issue by Early Brothers of 63.200 shares worth £47,400. Early Brothers is a relatively small company, but it operates in a vital sphere and since being listed in 1960 it has made steady progress. There are interesting longterm prospects for the company, particularly since its take-over of Ethicals and participation in a joint enterprise, Sterimed (N.Z.), to manufacture pre-packed, sterilised. disposable surgical and hospital appliances. Operations by Sterimed have not yet begun because the Tasman Vaccine Laboratory; where sterilising is to be done by the gamma ray process, has not yet been completed. When manufacturing gets under way, possibly later this year, the benefits of the enterprise should soon be felt by Early Brothers. Dividend for the year is again steady at 12 j per cent and at the latest price of 12s 3d for the 4s ordinary shares the yield is 4.1 per cent. Doni. Finance Dominion Finance Holdings —until recently Cash Order Purchases—lifted its consolidated net profit by almost 45 per cent to £34.130 in the year to January 31. Steady final dividend of 61 per cent makes an unchanged 121 per cent for the year, but the over-all payout reflects the forward moves made by the organisation during the year. Shares from last September’s one-for-five issue at 5s premium will get dividend only from November 1: 3 1/8 per cent. Shares from the two-for-five bonus issue made earlier
this year rang for dividend I only after ’anuary 31. Dominion Finance is prob-: ably the most dynamic of local organisations with its policy of expansion through the acquisition of established businesses. The company’s shares have not been traded since the bonus issue and name change, but at last week’s close selling quotes were 9s for the old shares and 8s 6d for the bonus shares with no buyers. Crothalls Crothalls confirmed a 68.7 per cent rise in consolidated net profit to £35,595 in the year to October 31 last when full accounts were released on Friday. However, the chairman (Mr E. A. Crothall) pointed out in his report that the absence of the old chemical division losses had a significant effect on the profit. Because of this he felt it was unlikely that the latest big profit increase would be repeated this year. Crothall’s success is that it is a highly efficient organisation that knows where it is going. Mr Crothall mentioned in his report that “executives at all levels are showing a good result of the company’s unending training programmes.” Emphasis on executive training is rated highly by Crothalls and there is no doubt this shows results. Ordinary shares in Crothalls last traded little more than a week ago at 24s 6d cum dividend. This gave a yield of 4.5 per cent. Hay’s Trade Hay's reported on Friday that trading was buoyant and sales 7i per cent higher in the first six months of its trading year. Steady interim ordinarydividend of 41 per cent seems to indicate the same total payout as last year. Hay’s directors said in their interim report that the company’s profit performance for the year should be acceptable and in line with their fore-
casts if there was satisfactory I trading for the rest of the year. Hay’s shares have sagged i during the last few weeks and ! the latest price was the 18s | lid paid in Christchurch and i Wellington last Thursday. On an estimated 10 per cent dividend for the year the | yield at that price would be 5.3 per cent. Decimal Retailing Retailers will have a very special role to play in the change-over next year to decimal currency, according to Mr L. E. Scott, general manager and secretary of Hay's. Mr Scott was in Melbourne and Sydney to watch the change to decimal currency in Australia. Banks and similar organisations would be able to close their doors in preparation for the change and re-open to deal only in the new currency, he said last week. Retail stores would need much longer preparation for the change so that their staffs would be both “confident and competent” to handle dollars and cents along with the old currency. Customers would want to be able to feel sure that the girl behind the cash register new what she was doing. Lack of confidence and uncertainty about dollars and cents had caused retail trading to slow down in Australia in the first week of decimal currency, because shoppers wanted to get the feel of the new money. Mr Scott said this had been noticed in many retail lines, but not in the bread-and-but-ter lines. Shoppers might be able to wait another week before buying a pair of shoes, but they had to buy food. He expected there might be the same trend in New Zealand when the change came. Australian stores that had trained their staffs well made a fairly smooth change to decimals. Myers, possibly the biggest Melbourne department store, balanced off at the end of the first day in better than average time and with better than average accuracy. But Myers had spent a lot of time and money in intense preparation, he said.
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Press, Volume CV, Issue 31002, 7 March 1966, Page 19
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1,200COMMERCIAL Review Of Week’s Stock Exchange Transactions Press, Volume CV, Issue 31002, 7 March 1966, Page 19
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