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TOP OF THE STOCKS
NZ Oil & Gas shareholders were quite rightly outraged last week after Stock Takes incorrectly listed Contact Energy as the best-performing stock in the NZX-50 this year.
A technical error meant the oil and gas explorer was omitted from the list of stocks on which our calculations were based. As it turns out, Contact's slump this week has seen it drop to third spot anyway. For the record, as of yesterday's close, the NZX-50 list of top performing stocks for the year to date is as follows:
* NZ Oil & Gas, total return 43.48 per cent
* Sanford, 12.35 per cent
* Contact 9.59 per cent.
Stepping outside the NZX-50 to include all NZSE companies shows that Mr Chips has been the star performer. It is up 86.62 per cent thanks to the takeover offer by Simplot Australia and this weeks earnings upgrade. Pike River Coal is second, up 47.59 per cent.
Investors are no doubt excited by the soaring international price of coking coal.
- Liam Dann