KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket went for a ride lower today along with slumping world markets.
A 51 per cent hike in interim profit from Fisher & Paykel Healthcare and a prediction of a 70 per cent rise in annual profit could not lift the mood. F&P Healthcare shares closed down 4c at 308.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed down 61.609 points, or 2.277 per cent, at 2644.666 points. The Australian market was down 3.5 per cent in afternoon trading.
"There has been some relief among the largest stocks which are off their lows," said Adrian Vance, client adviser at Hamilton, Hindin, Greene.
Volume was worth $80.096 million. There were 19 rises and 74 falls.
Mr Vance said there was good volume though Telecom, GPG and Rakon today.
There was profit-taking in Fisher & Paykel Healthcare as the stock had out outperformed the market.
"Fundamentally the market does look to be oversold but sentiment and people's confidence is pretty low," he said.
Among leading shares today, Telecom was down 4c to 231, Contact Energy lost 35c to 680, and Fletcher Building fell 22c to 548.
Trustpower was down 10c to 705 but SkyCity rose 3c to 308.
Port of Tauranga was down 25c to 635, SkyTV was down 13c to 335 and Michael Hill was down 4c to 58.
Westpac rose 30c to 1870 and Lion Nathan rose 20c to 1000. AMP rose 5c to 610.
GPG rose 1c to 93 and Rakon eased 2c to 100.
Ebos eased 20c to 400 and Nuplex eased 20c to 475. Air NZ eased 2c to 87 and Auckland Airport eased 3c to 164.
US stocks plunged to the lowest in 5-1/2 years as investors girded for a lengthy economic downturn and US auto executives predicted a far-reaching calamity without a government lifeline.
Unofficially, the Dow Jones industrial average plunged 5.1 per cent, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 6.1 per cent, and the Nasdaq Composite Index tanked 6.5 per cent.
- NZPA