Investor and analyst attention will turn to Contact Energy and Air New Zealand for some indication of how the domestic and global economic slowdown has affected key companies.
First up today will be South Canterbury Finance, an unlisted company but one which has been closely watched as other finance companies disintegrate around it.
The Timaru-based company is releasing its annual result in Auckland at 10.30am and has indicated in a letter to investors it is on target to produce a budgeted before-tax profit of more than $80 million for the year ended June.
The company's total assets now stand at $1.85 billion.
Pyne Gould Corporation owns the successful Marac Finance group and a good result today should see it remain in favour with investors looking for a place other than a bank in which to invest their cash.
Also today, Sky City Entertainment Group will release its result.
Forsyth Barr broker Ken Lister expects an improvement in the company's operating earnings to $307.6 million.
Sky City, which operates casinos in New Zealand and Australia, was well placed for improved earnings from a tighter focus on capital and costs, and successfully leveraging off a refurbished Auckland casino that had the worst impact of smoking bans and regulatory changes behind it, Mr Lister said.
Higher fuel prices were expected to affect Air New Zealand's profit, he said.
Although fuel prices had recently fallen, prices had bounced back and the dollar had fallen.
The airline recorded a 2.7% rise in load factors across its long-haul services to 87.7% in July from a year ago.
Flights to Asia, Japan and the United Kingdom had a load factor of 87.7%, and flights to North America and the UK had a load factor of 90.5%.
The airline said school holiday travel helped boost long-haul load factors in the month.
Overall, the group's load factor rose 1.1% in July compared with July last year.
On the Tasman and Pacific routes, the load factor fell 2.6% to 76.9% and this part of the business was identified as "increasingly challenging" as rivals boosted the number of flights, increasing the number of seats to fill.
Air New Zealand's short-haul passenger load factor decreased 1.1% to 77.3%.
The results of Vector and Contact were both expected to show improved profits, Mr Lister said.
For Vector, the gas wholesale division had the potential to surprise, given high lpg prices and the potential for higher-than-expected demand from electricity generators.
Electricity revenue could be affected by the slowdown in new home building, which affected the customer contributions Vector received for new connections.
Contact's wholesale division was expected to have performed well with record high wholesale-electricity prices resulting in record business-unit profits, Mr Lister said.
However, there were likely to be some negative aspects to the result.
The retail division would have lost money because of high wholesale prices.
"Ordinarily, during times of high wholesale prices, Contact performs well, as the gas-fired generation more than compensates for the drop in hydro generation. This year, Contact has been receiving significantly less for its gas generation compared to what it has had to pay to cover South Island demand."
Looking to 2009, Forsyth Barr expected a cautious stance from Contact as the hydro situation on the Clutha had continued to worsen and was unlikely to be significantly alleviated until the snow started melting at the end of September, he said.
