KEY POINTS:
Falls by the three top stocks pulled the sharemarket down 0.8 per cent in early trading today.
Renewed jitters about the financial sector sent Wall Street shares tumbling as the sector's latest troubles accelerated profit taking from last week's gains.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index was down 28 points to 3596 at 10.20am.
Turnover was heavy at $169m with $37m of that in Telecom.
Telecom fell 8c to 394 after gaining 6c on Friday while Fletcher Building, which had gained 22c on Friday was down 6c to 794 and Contact Energy, which raced up 37c on Friday after parent Origin Energy spurned a takeover offer from BG Group as too cheap, was down 8c to 940.
If successful, BG would have had an exemption to launch an immediate takeover offer for Contact, but had to make a move within a month.
Exporters Rakon, up 5c to 320 and Sanford, up 4c to 474 were among the few top 50 stocks to gain.
Among the falls were Auckland Airport, 3c to 214, ING Property, 5c to 113, PGG Wrightson, 4c to 227 and Sky City, 5c to 370.
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US sentiment took a hit from a shakeup in top management at US banking giants Wachovia and Washington Mutual along with downbeat notes on the brokerage sector from Standard & Poor's, warning that the crisis in the sector may be far from over.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average skidded 136.30 points (1.08 per cent) to 12,502.02 and the Nasdaq slumped 31.13 points (1.23 per cent) to 2491.53 at the closing bell.
The broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index shed 14.68 points (1.05 per cent) to a preliminary close of 1385.70.
- NZPA
