Fletcher Building hammered, Sky TV bucks trend

Photo / File

The sharemarket slumped more than 22 points yesterday as overseas stocks dropped following weak economic data from China and the United States reviving concerns about the health of the global economy.

Analysts said that sharp declines looked unlikely before an emergency meeting to stem the spreading debt crisis, but the euro weakened to a two-week low against the greenback amid worries that the debt crisis was spreading to Italy, the region's third-largest economy.

Stockmarkets around the world have barely begun recovering from an extended period of volatility in the first half of this year, when a perfect storm in the shape of slowing growth in China, worrisome news from the euro zone and little progress to avert a looming US debt default deterred demand for risky assets once again.

Across the Tasman, stocks fell by more than 1 per cent on the ASX after the Australian Government unveiled a plan to tax carbon emissions from the nation's worst polluters, sending shares of coal miners, steel and airlines such as Macarthur Coal, BlueScope Steel and Virgin Australia tumbling.

In New Zealand, the benchmark NZX-50 index finished down 22 points (a drop of 0.64 per cent) at 3434.13, after losing 4.4 points on Friday.

Overall, 65 falls among the 110 stocks traded were almost double the 37 rises, as 92 million shares valued at $168m changed hands.

Fletcher Building continued its retreat, down 6c in early trading, but finished down 11c at $8.24.

Guinness Peat Group dropped 3c to 76c, Skellerup dropped 5c to $1.18, and cornerstone stock Telecom fell 3.5c to $2.45.5, while Contact Energy slipped 5c to $5.28.

APN News fell 1c to 1.64c.

Sky TV added 8c to reach $5.88, PGG Wrightson lifted 2c to 48c.

Australian stocks were the worst performers among the Asian markets, dropping more than 1.5 per cent as the benchmark ASX200 index fell 72.4 points to 4582.3 while the All Ordinaries index fell 69.2 points to 4646.8.

In the US, the fall in stock prices on Friday (local time) followed data showing US employers created the fewest number of jobs in nine months. The 18,000 net jobs created in June were a fraction of what many economists expected and dampened hopes that the economy was improving.

The Standard and Poor's 500 index fell 0.7 per cent to 1343.80, leaving it with a gain of just 0.3 per cent for the week.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 0.5 per cent to 12,657.20, only the Dow's second down day over the past nine, while the Nasdaq composite dropped 0.4 per cent to 2859.81, its first loss in two weeks.

The Dow rose 0.6 for the week, the Nasdaq 1.6 per cent.

- NZPA