KEY POINTS:
New Zealand shares plunged more than 1 per cent today following significant declines on Wall Street, but the local market's fall was smaller than for those around the region.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed down 53.8 points at a one-and-a-half month low of 4154.13. Turnover totalled $113.4 million, with 24 rises and 80 falls.
"We don't rise as much as other markets too, of course, and in general our markets have been pretty quiet so we haven't had any speculative fever in our market," said Stephen Wright of ASB Securities.
"There's no dramatic blood on the floor."
Telecom shed 2.6 per cent, or 11c, to a more than two-month low of 417 after its quarterly result today. The company said net profit for the three months to the end of September were $225 million, unchanged from a year earlier. But profits from continuing operations were up 29 per cent.
"The mobile outlook wasn't good, some of the ways they got some profit seemed to be from lower tax and one-off things like the Southern Cross dividend. Obviously the combination of a bad day and a poor result," Mr Wright said.
Air New Zealand was one of few leaders to post a rise, up 3c at 215 despite ongoing oil price rises.
Fletcher Building fell 32c to 1168, Contact Energy was down 4c at 900, Fisher & Paykel Appliances lost 8c to 348, F&P Healthcare was 6c lower at 317, and Auckland Airport lost a cent to 287.
Sky City was down 6c at 539, while Sky TV rose a cent to 570.
Smaller stocks to rise were Methven, up 6c at 246, NZX, up 8c at 948, Nuplex, up a cent at 756, and carpet maker Cavalier, 2c higher at 310.
Pumpkin Patch was down 6c at 293, Michael Hill lost 20c to 1025, Ebos fell 8c to 537, Freightways was down 7c at 383, and Mainfreight fell 3c to 732.
"There's not a lot to get excited about in our market, they're all pretty solid stocks, so therefore the inverse is that nobody should get too despondent on them on days like today," Mr Wright said.
Of the two stocks to list this week, Opus was flat at 204, up from the 165 listing price, and Marlin shares and half a warrant were at 98.75 compared with the 100 listing price.
Among dual-listed stocks, ANZ fell 40c to 3620, Westpac was down 90c at 3650, AMP fell 20c to 1230 and Lion Nathan was flat at 1120.
- NZPA