KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket slid further today, showing no sign of wanting to rise from its five year low.
The benchmark NZSX-50 was down 50.758 points, or 2 per cent, from 2538.286 to 2487.528 at the close of trading today.
There were 35.25 million stocks traded, worth $115.5m. There were 23 rises and 75 falls.
The NZSX-50 is in territory it last saw in the first quarter of 2004.
But there was no respite today as the local market was again weak, following offshore leads and the US market's 12-year lows flowing through into global markets, said Hamilton, Hindin, Greene director Adrian Vance.
It was also being led lower by local companies with debt concerns.
Leading the slide were Tourism Holdings, down 6c, or 12.25 per cent, to 43; Cavalier, down 16c, or 10.67 per cent, to 134 and Hellaby Holdings, shedding 7c, or 10 per cent, to 63.
Contact Energy, which today reported a 31 per cent fall in half-year underlying earnings after tax to $79.9 million, as the company was battered by winter drought, summer deluge, and transmission constraints, was down 25c to 580.
Fisher & Paykel Appliances also lost 5c to 50, Methven lost 10c, or 8.7 per cent, to 105, and Nuplex lost 10c, or 8 per cent, to 115.
Guinness Peat Group lost 5c to 64 and Lion Nathan lost 69c to $10.51,
Only a handful of stocks were able to swim against the tide. Sanford was up 24c, or 4.76, to 549, Michael Hill was up 2c to 52 and Telstra was up 15c, or 3.26 per cent, to 475.
NZX, the company, was up 5c to 545, Freightways was up 3c to 273 and heavyweight stock Telecom rose 1c to 238.
In Australia stocks fell 1.3 per cent, touching a three-month low, but the market performed better than other big Asian exchanges as gold miners and a new domestic gas discovery helped keep losses in check.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was 46 points lower at 3305.3 by 0327 GMT. The index fell 1.5 per cent on Monday to a one-month low.
It had fallen to a five-year low in November.
Asian shares fell on Tuesday, with Japan's Nikkei flirting with a 26-year low, as concerns grew about the global financial system, while emerging currencies such as the South Korean won extended their recent sell-off.
Japan's Nikkei stock average slid 2.6 per cent, hurt by exporters such as Canon Inc and banking shares after worries about financial system stability sent US stocks to a 12-year low.
Japanese Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano said the government was studying measures to support the stock market, as the Nikkei briefly fell as low as 7,155.16, breaking below the October 27 closing level of 7162.90, its lowest finish since October 1982.
Key indexes in South Korea and Hong Kong dropped more than 3 per cent each, while Singapore, Australia and Shanghai fell around 1 per cent each.
In the US Wall Street turned the clock back to 1997.
Investors unable to extinguish their worries about a recession that has no end in sight dumped stocks again Monday. The Dow Jones industrial average tumbled 251 points to its lowest close since May 7, 1997, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index logged its lowest finish since April 11, 1997. It's as if the decade's dot-com surge, collapse and subsequent recovery never occurred.
The Dow is just over 100 points from 7000. Both indexes have lost about half their value since hitting record highs in October 2007.
The Dow dropped 250.89, or 3.41 per cent, to 7114.78. It last closed this low on May 7, 1997 when it finished at 7085.65. The Dow hasn't traded below the 7,000 mark since October 1997. The index is down 14 per cent over the past 10 sessions.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 26.72, or 3.47 per cent, to 743.33. It was the lowest close since April 11, 1997, when it ended at 737.65.
- NZPA
