KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket had only a restrained fall today after grim job news out of the United States contributed to steeper declines in overseas markets.
According to ADP, a private employment service, US private employers shed 693,000 jobs in December, up sharply from the revised 476,000 jobs lost in November and far more than economists estimated.
Recession fears were also heightened after top chip maker Intel said its revenue for the fourth quarter would not meet the lowered forecast it had given in November, citing weakening demand for personal computers.
In this country trading remained quiet and was mostly concentrated in a few stocks such as Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, Guinness Peat Group, and Auckland Airport, David Price of Forsyth Barr said.
At the end of trading today the NZSX-50 index was down 7.59 points, or 0.28 per cent, to 2756.65, with Healthcare unchanged on 310, GPG down 4c to 94, and Auckland Airport unchanged on 172.
There were 18 rises and 34 falls in the 91 shares traded. Total turnover was 27,284,401 shares at a value of $53,591,773.
Among the other more heavily traded shares Telecom was up 5c to 240, while Sky TV was unchanged at 380.
"The broader market is very, very quiet. Basically people are just sitting on the sidelines waiting for the reporting season to take shape in a few weeks time," Mr Price said.
While the news out of the US and Britain was gloomy every night, the New Zealand market had probably done a little better than he would have expected given last night's developments, he said.
Around the time the New Zealand market closed, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index was down about 2.5 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei average fell a similar amount during the afternoon and looked set to snap a seven-day winning streak.
The larger fall in Australia than in this country came in the wake of some company profit comments, and in light of Australia's greater exposure to commodities given weakness in oil prices, Mr Price said.
Apart from Telecom, the few stocks to rise today included Contact Energy up 1c to 751 and Rakon up 1c to 126.
Among stocks to lose ground Sky City slid 11c to 299, Sanford dropped 9c to 541, Port of Tauranga was down 8c to 652, and Hallenstein Glasson lost 8c to 212.
Steel & Tube lost 5c to 310, NZ Refining Co lost 5c to 580, The Warehouse was down 3c to 362, and Hellaby Holdings was down 3c to 134.
In the US, Intel's news compounded negative sentiment from aluminium producer Alcoa's announcement it would cut more than 15,000 jobs, halve capital spending and sell businesses to weather the global downturn.
"Reality set back in," said Fred Dickson, market strategist and director of retail research at DA Davidson & Co in Lake Oswego, Oregon. "Investors were expecting bad news on the earnings front and the Alcoa news combined with Intel reminded investors how bad things really are".
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 2.7 per cent to 8770.42, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 3 per cent to 906.70, and the Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 3.2 per cent to 1599.06. It was the largest drop for the Dow since December 1.
- NZPA
