KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket, which escaped the worst of an international equities slide last week, played catch-up yesterday, ending 1 per cent down at its lowest close since late March.
While markets across the Asia Pacific region including Australia and Japan were broadly higher yesterday, the New Zealand market fell 40 points to 4070.
Market leader Telecom, which took the sting out of Friday's slump by gaining 1c, yesterday fell by 7c to $4.28. That, with falls by other top stocks including Contact Energy and Fletcher Building, dragged the index lower, albeit on relatively modest turnover.
Beyond New Zealand, markets in the region appeared to be somewhat reassured by moves from central banks.
In its latest quarterly monetary policy statement, the Reserve Bank of Australia said the US problems appeared to have so far seen credit spreads "rise back to more reasonable levels after a period when risk appears to have been under-priced".
"The main risk would appear to stem from the possibility of an excessive withdrawal of the provision of credit, which could constrain growth in spending and output, particularly in the United States."
Yesterday, the Bank of Japan injected US$5.1 billion ($6.91 billion) into the banking system and others said they were ready to do so if required.
