KEY POINTS:
A small rise for top stock Telecom did not prevent carnage among other top-10 stocks, with many sliding to their lowest point in years as global market concerns hit home.
The NZSX-50 index closed down 51.5 points at a 28-month low of 3340.1, following another dire session on Wall Street and other markets amid economic and credit sector worries.
"Then coupled with people like Fletcher Building being unnecessarily sold down, and people are obviously now starting to worry about next year's earnings for companies," said James Porteous of ABN Amro Craigs.
"The markets are behaving as you'd expect them (to) - they're trying to look and see where things are going, and then pricing things accordingly."
Building materials and construction company Fletcher Building shed 30c, or 4.4 per cent, to 654, earlier hitting a three-year low of 647 as offshore selling dominated.
"It's got a wonderful range of assets and operates in a duopolistic sector, but it's just really concerns about earnings and (a) slowdown in manufacturing and demand," Mr Porteous said.
Among other top-10 stocks hit hard today, F&P Appliances fell 8c to 205, earlier hitting a record low 203, and F&P Healthcare fell 13c to a five-year low of 220.
Auckland International Airport slid 8c to match March's 18-month low of 199, Infratil was down 7c at 200, its lowest since late 2006, and Sky City shed 12c to a six-year low of 318.
Telecom was up 5c at 385, Contact Energy lost 12c to 832, Sky TV gained 2c to 445, and Kiwi Income Property Trust fell 3c to 117.
Retailer The Warehouse was down 18c at a two-year low of 482 as the wait continued for a court decision on whether Foodstuffs and Woolworths can launch a takeover.
Dominion Finance slumped 38c, or 76 per cent, to a record low 12c after a trading halt was lifted. Its shares were suspended on Tuesday when it announced its two subsidiaries were having liquidity problems, and it was considering a moratorium on repayments to investors.
Among the few top-50 stocks to provide relief, NZ Oil and was up 2c at 156, Gas Port of Tauranga rose 3c to 683, Steel & Tube gained 16c to 290, Hellaby Holdings was up 5c at 160, and Property for Industry rose 4c to 124.
Hallenstein Glasson matched yesterday's four-and-a-half year low of 285 before closing at 286, down 9c.
Turnover totalled $119.4 million.
Dual-listed stocks plunged, with ANZ down 90c to 2350, Westpac off 100 at 2650, AMP down 12c at 862, and Lion Nathan down 7c at 1114.
Australia's ASX/S&P 200 Index was down 1.2 per cent at 5374, and Japan's Nikkei share average lost 2.4 per cent.
In the US, the Dow industrials sank below 12,000 for the first time since mid-March, as worries about a weak economy compounded credit sector concerns and drove shares of banks, autos and transportation companies sharply lower.
- NZPA