Australia Stock Market News update : Gunns defends shareholder claims

The Tasmanian timber company Gunns is defending claims in a shareholder class action that it did not warn the stock exchange it was poised to announce a big profit loss in the first half of last year.

Earlier this year about 300 shareholders lodged a class action in the Federal Court in Sydney alleging they had lost millions because the company did not warn the stock exchange about its first half loss in 2010, when its profits were down 98 per cent on the same period the year before.

Lawyer Jason Geisker from the firm representing shareholders says Gunns lodged its defence papers last week and has refuted those claims and indicated that it will be defending the matter going forward.

Shareholders are seeking tens of millions of dollars in damages.

Gunns has declined to comment.
 
The matter is due to return to the Federal Court in October. (Yahoo Finance)