KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket had a shaky start to the day, as the annual reporting season reaching a crescendo and following sharp drops on Wall Street overnight.
Among companies reporting today were Air New Zealand and Contact Energy.
Contact posted a 1 per cent fall in full year net profit to $237.1 million, after having to supply its South Island demand by purchasing electricity from the spot market at a "significant" loss during some periods.
The problem was continuing and Contact's performance for the first two months of the current financial year were "well below" expectations, Mr Baldwin said.
Soon after the market opened today, Contact's shares were down 11c to 820.
In contrast Air New Zealand was one of few stocks to rise early, up 2c to 124, after the national carrier said its "normalised" earnings before unusual items and tax had dropped 24 per cent on last year to $197m.
Chairman John Palmer blamed a $300m rise in the cost of fuel over the past year.
Around 10.15am, the benchmark NZSX-50 index was down 31.34 points to 3295.58, after closing up 15.3 points yesterday.
Top stock Telecom was among a wide range of stocks to fall early, down 4c to 332, while Sky TV was down 5c to 475, Sky City lost 6c to 336, Nuplex was down 5c to 620, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare shed 5c to 293 and Fletcher Building lost 10c to 721.
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In the US, stocks tumbled as credit concerns hounded financial stocks while global growth worries hurt big technology and industrial companies.
American International Group Inc, the world's biggest insurer, was among the top drags on the Dow, with its shares falling to a 13-year low. Credit Suisse cut the company's share price target and forecast a huge loss for the insurer.
Shares of Lehman Brothers fell 6.3 per cent after a top South Korean regulator voiced concern about state-run Korea Development Bank's interest in acquiring a global bank.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 2.08 per cent at 11,386.33. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 1.96 per cent at 1266.92. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 2.03 per cent at 2365.59.
- NZPA