A prolonged US winter and heavy rain in Texas have hurt building products supplier Boral's earnings for the March quarter, sending the company's shares sharply lower.
Earnings from the company's Australian operations were also below expectations in the three months to March 31, due to a kiln outage, challenging conditions in Western Australia and rain in Queensland.
Shares in Boral dropped 65 cents, or 8.6 per cent, to $6.88, a six month low.
Boral said it was hampered by significant rain in the Texas region and up through the midwest of the US, particularly in February, along with prolonged winter weather.
But it expects its second half earnings from North America to be 10 to 25 per cent stronger than in the first half.
The company said the sale of a property in western Sydney will help take the full earnings contribution from its property division to between $55 million and $65 million, which will help drive second half earnings growth in Australia.
It has forecast full year earnings growth of about 10 to 20 per cent in Australia, with a strong June quarter expected.
