5 Aug 2014

Investors to focus on outlook

9:37 am on 5 August 2014

A key key part of the upcoming company reporting season for investors will be what companies have to say about the outlook for growth, a retail broking firm says.

Forsyth Barr is expecting a mixed bag from the 48 companies reporting their results in the next few weeks.

Overall, it's expecting aggregate earnings per share growth will be only about 3 percent. However, stripping out some of the poorly performing companies, such as the telecos, means the aggregate is more like 8 percent earnings per share growth.

Forsyth Barr investment strategist Brian Stewart said he was expecting strong growth from building, transport and power companies.

But he was predicting declining earnings from companies such as Telecom which had pressure on revenue.

"We do have declines coming through given you get less and less ability to cut costs as you go forward," he said.

"Chorus is more to do wtih some Commerce Commission decisions and in Vectors case it's had some regulatory pressures on it."