KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket fell sharply today, following Asian and Australian bourses as fears grew that the US was headed for recession.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index was down 57.24 points to 3953.57, down 1.4 per cent on moderate volume worth $64 million.
On Friday the Dow Jones industrial average fell nearly 2 per cent on soft economic data, a nd the Australian share market was off as much as 2.5 per cent in late afternoon trade.
"The sellers are in control of this market and the buyers are very hesitant to pay up," Grant Williamson, a partner with Hamilton, Hindin, Greene, said.
Locally, the selloff was broad-based, including top stock Telecom which fell 7c to 424 . Fletcher Building tumbled 19c to 1119, while Contact Energy eased 8c to 832 and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare slipped 4c to 351.
The Warehouse ended down 2c to 578 despite it flagging a flat first half result, and brokers said the main driver of the stock was still court action surrounding a possible takeover bid.
Auckland International Airport and Sky City, both possible takeover targets, were among the biggest losers. AIA lost 10c to 278 and Sky City fell 13c to 442.
"With Sky City, the silence continues as to whether the people looking to make a bid for that company can raise finance or not ," Mr Williamson said, noting that the share price was nearly back to pre-M&A news levels.
Transport stocks appeared to react to the rise in oil prices, with Air NZ closing flat at 288 after an earlier slip and Mainfreight down 8c to 642.
Other falls included Tourism Holdings down 10c to 225, Trustpower down 15c to 840, and F&P Appliances down 10c to 330.
The gloom in Australia saw dual-listed stocks like ANZ, Westpac and AMP all suffer. They fell 40c to 3060, 21c to 3109 and 22c to 1100 respectively.
Falls outnumbered rises 68 to 21 on 133 stocks traded.
- NZPA