Gunns shares fall on doubt over pulp mill
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22/05/2008
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Age (Australia)
Shares in timber company Gunns fell sharply in intraday trading today, following reports that the ANZ bank would pull out of funding Gunns' controversial $2 billion pulp mill project in Tasmania. At 12.51pm, Gunns was down 18 cents, or 5.61%, at $3.03, having touched a low for the day of $3.01. "There's a bit of uncertainty over the funding of the mill,'' CMC Markets head of trading James Foulsham said. "But there still hasn't been big volumes going through. "So I don't think it's any wholesale dumping by any of the institutional investors or anything like that.'' He added that Gunns was not the most liquid stock at the best of times, so it could get pushed around a bit. ANZ says it is yet to decide on whether to finance the Tamar Valley project planned by the Tasmanian timber giant. But a growing number of reports say tight global credit conditions are forcing ANZ away from the deal. AAP