NZ stocks: Air NZ top brass front for questions from parliamentary committee

Interesting times are in store this week with top brass from one of the country's largest listed companies due to appear before a parliamentary committee.

Ralph Norris and senior Air New Zealand management make their first appearance on Wednesday in front of the finance and expenditure committee.

The difficulty lies in the fact that although the national carrier is majority owned by the Government (82 per cent), and therefore answerable to Wellington, it is also a listed company and must comply with the New Zealand Exchange's stricter new continuous disclosure rules.

Basically, anything the company plans to say that is new information is supposed to be released to NZX first.

Late last year, Parliament voted to make Air NZ a "public organisation" - meaning MPs gained the right to scrutinise the company as it does its state-owned enterprises.

So, although Wednesday marks the first political probe how much financial information - such as future forecasts - will be disclosed remains to be seen.

Two public offers close this week - Gulliver's Travel's $104 million main board offer ends tomorrow and the NZAX market's $5 million offer from Eastern Hi Fi closes on Friday. Both companies are scheduled to list on Wednesday next week.

Thursday's Reserve Bank monetary policy statement will also be key for the country's listed companies as the central bank releases its views on the country's economic future.

The latest Reuters poll shows all 14 economists polled expect the central bank to leave interest rates on hold at 6.5 per cent but the market will digest all comments as to future plans and their consequences for business.

Citigroup economist Annette Beacher expects near-term continued buoyant demand indicators, fuelled by a tight labour market and upbeat consumer and business confidence.

"However, the trio of fading net migration inflow, an elevated currency and restrictive cash rates support our view that sub-par growth remains on the cards for 2005," she said.

This fits with broker expectations that the unparalleled rise of the sharemarket this year - the NZSX-50 index broke above 3000 points last week - is unlikely to continue at such a pace.