Australia, N.Z. Stocks: BHP, Fairfax Media, Kathmandu, Woodside

Aug. 2 (Bloomberg) --Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 1.4 percent to 4,433.60 at the 4:10 p.m. close of trading in Sydney. New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index (NZSE50FG) slipped 0.5 percent to 3,397 at the 5 p.m. close in Wellington.

The following were among the most active shares in the market today. Stock symbols are in parentheses after company names.

Mining companies: Copper futures for September delivery declined 1.6 percent on the Comex in New York yesterday.

BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP) , the world’s No. 1 mining company, slid 1.7 percent to A$41.57. Rio Tinto Group (RIO AU), the world’s second-largest mining company by sales, fell 1.8 percent to A$80.05.

Oil stocks: Crude for September delivery fell 0.9 percent on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (WPL) , Australia’s second- biggest oil and gas producer, slipped 1.7 percent to A$38.24. Santos Ltd. (STO) , Australia’s third-largest oil and gas producer, declined 1.8 percent to A$12.90.

Gold stocks: Gold for December delivery in New York rose as much as 0.4 percent after futures reached a record $1,637.50 on July 29. Newcrest Mining Ltd. (NCM) , Australia’s biggest gold producer, gained 1.1 percent to A$40.03. Rival OceanaGold Corp. (OGC) surged 3.1 percent to A$2.34.

Fairfax Media Ltd. (FXJ) dropped 1.1 percent to 89.5 Australian cents. The media company was unable to print many of its morning newspapers in New Zealand today after a computer failure in its main production system.

New Zealand:

Kathmandu Holdings Ltd. (KMD) rose 6.4 percent to NZ$2.34 after the company said in a trading update that sales in the year to July 31 climbed almost 25 percent, adding that “the substantial improvement in results” went against the general trend for the retail sector.

To contact the reporter on this story: Shani Raja in Sydney at sraja4@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nick Gentle at ngentle2@bloomberg.net.