KEY POINTS:
The sharemarket reversed early gains to close 1 per cent lower, following other regional markets amid a lack of corporate news to drive stocks.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index lost 45.20 points to 4123.52 on turnover of $103.6 million.
"It started off promisingly enough, but just drifted down with Aussie and Asian markets during the afternoon," said Stephen Wright of ASB Securities.
"Markets everywhere are waiting to see what happens with the (US) Federal Open Market Committee tomorrow."
The US Federal Reserve is expected to cut the benchmark federal funds rate by 25 basis points, a decision that has largely been factored in by markets.
The session highlight was Mainfreight's largest acquisition yet, the US$53.7m ($77m) purchase of US company Target Logistics Inc.
"Mainfreight's been looking for an overseas acquisition for some time, and it's selected a relatively small stock that's listed on the American exchange," Mr Wright said.
Mainfreight was among the handful of top-50 stocks to gain, adding 5c to 710.
Jeweller Michael Hill added another 23c to a new record high of 1113, on light volume of just 790 shares.
Others on the rise were Tower, up a cent at 231, PGG Wrightson, up 3c at 185, and Pumpkin Patch, 4c higher at 334 and recovering after yesterday's news of a 3.2 per cent fall in annual profit.
Telecom was down 7c to 430, Fletcher Building fell 15c to 1199, Contact Energy lost 10c to 891, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was down 5c at 355, F&P Appliances fell 6c to 355, and Auckland Airport lost a cent to 304.
Sky City was down 6c at 432, and Sky TV lost 5c to 545.
Restaurant Brands rose 2c to 88 after reporting a nearly 6 per cent rise in second quarter sales across its three New Zealand businesses, KFC, Pizza Hut and Starbucks Coffee.
Freightways was down 10c at 365, Rakon lost 5c to 481, Trustpower lost 13c to 825, and Ryman Healthcare was down 4c at 203.
There were 71 falls and 32 rises among the stocks traded today.
Among dual-listed stocks, ANZ was down 48c at 3310, Westpac lost 15c to 3170, AMP was down 2c at 1198, and Goodman Fielder was 5c lower at 295.
Australia's benchmark index was down 1 per cent at 6205, while Japan's Nikkei average fell 1.6 per cent as growing global credit fears hit banks such as Mizuho Financial Group.
Earlier in the US, stocks dropped, led by financial shares, as a rush by savers to withdraw deposits at a large British mortgage lender fuelled concerns that turmoil in the credit markets would spread.
- NZPA