KEY POINTS:
Taking its lead from Wall Street, the sharemarket fell in early trading today.
The benchmark NZSX-50, which yesterday was 20 points from its all-time high, was down 20.32 points to 4302.85 at 10.20am.
Falls outnumbered rises 24 to 13 on 76 stocks traded. Turnover of $56 million was boosted by the sale of 21 million Macquarie Goodman shares worth $32m at 148. The stock was down 1c on 151 on market.
In-play stock Auckland Airport slipped another 4c to 321 after dopping 7c yesterday. Yesterday, a substantial shareholder sold a 1 per cent stake. A Canadian pension fund has been approaching shareholders but the airport's local body major shareholders have indicated they won't sell.
Among the leaders Telecom was down 3c to 467, Contact Energy was down 7c to 900 and Fletcher Building was down 2c to 1295.
Steel & Tube was the big mover in the top 50, rising 16c, 3.5 per cent, to 470.
Sky TV was down 4c to 570 as was Freightway to 410.
Air New Zealand was down 5c to 300 after revealing yesterday discounting had hit margins in May. As well, Wellington Airport announced it was hiking its charges.
Trust Power was down 9c to 821 and Tenon was down 5c to 245.
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, affected by the New Zealand dollar rising to over US76c, was down 6c to 343.
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Wall Street shares tumbled in a late-day sell-off as an uptick in bond yields prompted investors to lock in positions in the absence of major economic news.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average reversed course and slid 149.33 points to 13,486.09 while the tech-dominated Nasdaq sank 26.80 points to 2,599.06 at the closing bell.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 21.22 points to a preliminary close of 1,512.48.
- NZPA