NZ stocks: Market sharply down on world trend

The sharemarket joined the sell-down in world equity markets, but its decline today was orderly and largely confined to the top stocks.

The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed down 39.0 points, or 1.4 per cent, at 2786.15, after adding 15 points yesterday.

Turnover totalled $106.7 million.

"It's drifted off a little bit throughout the course of the day, albeit it certainly hasn't been a wave of selling - it's been a measured response to the fall in the Dow overnight," said Bryon Burke of ABN Amro Craigs.

"I guess we look to see whether it was a one-day pullback for the States, or whether there'll be continued selling tonight before investors decide what to do."

The sharp slide in global stocks followed weak factory activity data in the United States and news of record job losses in Europe, raising concerns about the world economy. Resource prices were also down.

Top stock Telecom fell 5c to 257, Contact Energy lost 11c to 572 and Fletcher Building was down 18c at 660.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare lost 3c to 292, F&P Appliances fell 2c to 69, Auckland Airport was down a cent at 155, Infratil shed 3c to 173, and Sky TV fell 2c to 428.

Among the seven rises on the top-50, Ebos gained 5c to 525, Property for Industry was up 3c at 123, Port of Tauranga rose 2c to 620, NZ Refining was up 10c at 735, NZX rose 4c to 774 and The Warehouse rose 3c to 374.

On the flip-side, PGG Wrightson lost 6c to 130, Pumpkin Patch fell 4c to 128, Pike River Coal lost 4c to 119, Freightways was down 5c at 296, and carpetmaker Cavalier fell 4c to 186.

Losses were larger for dual-listed stocks, with ANZ sliding 57c to 2128, Westpac losing 45c to 2480, and AMP off 10c at 635.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index was down 1.7 per cent at 3964.9, and Japan's Nikkei average fell 2.8 per cent.

On Wall Street, US stocks had their worst slide in a month with declines of over 2 per cent on the three main indexes.

- NZPA