New Zealand stocks fell, tracking a global decline, as investors' fears of faltering economic recovery were exacerbated by poor manufacturing data in the US, and China. Xero led the market lower, with Trade Me Group and Port of Tauranga pacing the decline.
The NZX 50 Index dropped 46.883 points or
about 1 percent to 4802.619, its lowest in three weeks. Within the Index 31 stocks fell, four rose and 15 were unchanged. Total turnover for the day was $123.8 million.
Manufacturing data out of the world's biggest economy, the US, grew at its slowest pace in the past eight months, compounding poor manufacturing, job and export data from the world's second biggest economy, China. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index tumbled 3.3 percent in afternoon trading, while Australia's S&P/ASX 500 and South Korea's KOPSI both dropped 1.8 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng is closed all week for Chinese New Year, but ended last week down 2.4 percent.
The global response weighed on the local market throughout the day, during morning trade the NZX 50 dropped to a four week intraday low, before regaining ground.
"It's a sea of red today, although we held out better than most other markets," said Mark Lister, head of private wealth research at Craigs Investment Partners. "The US got us off to a weak start because of manufacturing data people picked up on that and start to speculate whether there was a soft spot."
