The number of sharemarket trades hit a record high in December capping off the best year for the New Zealand stock market since 2004.

It is said that Napoleon, on being told of the impressive attributes of a new general, asked, "But is he lucky?"

A sinking mine site and Treasury's caution on asset sales are at the top of this year's "Christmas dump" of public announcements, snuck in just ahead of the holidays.

This has been another testing year for New Zealand businesses as they rock along the decade of "grumpy growth".

House prices have hit new records in seven of the past 12 months, a review of the year in property shows.

Three stocks have the strongest backing from brokers in the 2013 broker picks.

And so this is Christmas, and what have you done, New Zealand business?

Veritas Investments chairman Mark Darrow says many opportunities exist for expanding the Mad Butcher retail chain.

Swiss banking giant UBS has agreed to pay $1.5b in fines for its role in trying to manipulate the key LIBOR interest rate.

Latin America is one of the fastest-growing beer markets globally - there's a lot of impetus getting put into that market by the big brewers.

Datacom manages IT services for firms and has more than 4000 staff in New Zealand and overseas.

Fonterra's Trading Among Farmers (TAF) share trading scheme received its final, albeit retrospective, seal of approval at the annual meeting yesterday.

The New Zealand dollar hit a four-year high against the Japanese yen yesterday, prompting concern from local exporters whose returns are getting eroded..

Trade Me shares are in a trading halt, as announcements confirm Fairfax is selling its 51 per cent stake in the company.

When the co-founders of gopher.co.nz started to look for a new market in Southeast Asia, they were told to steer clear of Indonesia.

It isn't a surprise to see Fairfax selling out of Trade Me, writes Liam Dann. It needs the cash to pay off debt and it doesn't have anything else that it can sell quickly enough.

We hear a lot about great listed companies and we also hear a lot about great early stage success stories.

Rod Drury is the NZ Herald's Business Leader of the Year