KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket had a quiet day as investors waited on the sidelines to see how markets would fare in the financial crisis.
The benchmark NZSX-50 closed down 27.32 points, or 0.99 per cent, to 2714.588 after opening the session on at 2718.17.
ABN Amro Craigs investment advisor Martin Allison said it had been a quiet day with volume not much over $28 million.
"Who would want to be in this market?
"Investors have basically put away their wallets in view of the fact that we are going through a very volatile period and investors basically just fold their arms and sit on the sidelines."
Mr Allison said we have had two to three weeks of a market "that's drifting sideways if not backwards".
Among the leading stocks which closed down Telecom was down 8c to 234 and Contact 5c to 720.
Infratil was down 2c to 179, on top of a 3c loss yesterday after it announced an interim profit.
Dual-listed Lion Nathan was down 28c to 992 after announcing a 3.3 per cent fall in overall net profit to A$272.7 million for fiscal 2008.
Sky TV fell 5c to 350, Port of Tauranga 4c to 656, Auckland Airport 3c to 167, Rakon 7c to 104, Sanford 10c to 550 and Mainfreight 7c to 473.
Hallenstein Glasson was down 2c to 228 after it said it had delayed plans to move Glassons' buying function to Melbourne.
Charlie's was down 5c to 12c and Pumpkin Patch 6c to 94, after both held their annual general meetings today and announced their plans for surviving the current economic climate.
In other news, Postie Plus was down 1c to 32 following the release of figures showing sales were down 8.5 per cent in the last quarter.
Among the top-50 rises Fletcher Building was up 8c to 572, Tower 5c to 150, Trustpower 7c to 732 and NZ Refinery 5c to 605.
Trading in the United States remained nervous as markets reacted to news that Japan had joined the eurozone in recession and more forecasts said the US economy was likely headed for the same fate.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 3.82 points, or 0.04 per cent, to 8501.13. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 1.08 points, or 0.12 per cent, at 874.37. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 2.08 points, or 0.14 per cent, at 1514.77.
Japan's Nikkei index was down 1.71 per cent to 8376.82 and the Australian ASX 3.68 per cent to 3518.6 at 5.45pm local time.
- NZPA
