Concern about low oil prices and China's growth prospects has driven New Zealand's sharemarket lower, but the decline was modest compared with the falls on many major markets.
The local market started off weaker, taking its lead from an overnight sell-off on Wall Street that saw the main S&P 500 index move into what traders said was "correction" territory. By close, the S&P/NZX 50 Index was down 42.58 points, or 0.7 per cent, at 6109.29 but off its session low of 6082.1.
Since reaching a record high of 6324.26 on December 31, the index has lost 214 points or 3.4 per cent. The benchmark index had gained 13.2 per cent in the final quarter of 2015. Elsewhere in the Asia Pacific region, Australia's S&P/ASX200 index closed down 1.6 per cent yesterday -- continuing a sell-off that has seen the Australian sharemarket have its worst start to a year on record -- and Japan's Nikkei was trading down 4 per cent.
Matt Goodson, managing director at Salt Funds Management, said many of the world's major markets had fared badly because of their exposure to oil, but China was the main driver of investor sentiment.
"The oil and the energy companies are a far more significant part of market indices in the United States, Europe and Australia than is the case here, so to a degree some of those declines have less relevance to the New Zealand market because of that," Goodson said.
