NZ stocks: Pacific Brands' float big event of week

By SIMON HENDERY

Never mind that we're in that hiatus period when the reporting season is a distant memory but the latest round of annual meetings has yet to start.

The good news for market adrenalin-seekers is that the launch of a major transtasman share float and an official cash rate review should provide sufficient excitement in the week ahead.

Clothing and footwear company Pacific Brands' $1.46 billion float opens today and closes on March 24.

It is expected to be heavily oversubscribed as investors clamber for a slice of a well-known business making popular brands in a market normally bereft of such large floats.

The company plans to list on the Australian and New Zealand Stock Exchanges on April 14 after an institutional bookbuild to set the price of its 503 million shares.

Meanwhile, the question pre-occupying the market leading up to Thursday is: will he or won't he?

Economists are evenly split on whether Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard will announce a rise in the official cash rate by a quarter of a per cent or will leave it unchanged.

"There is a debate raging out there now that [in raising the rate last time] he may have moved too soon," said Macquarie Equities investment director Arthur Lim.

He said the currency, the slowing property sector and the lower North Island floods were all having an impact on the economy.