KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket's slide continued yesterday for a record 11th session in a row as it again followed troubled United States markets lower.
The benchmark NZX-50 index closed 22.43 points or 0.6 per cent lower at 3729.96 after fresh losses on Wall St overnight.
US stocks eased, albeit at a more restrained pace relative to recent sessions after a Federal Reserve report said economic growth had slowed and fresh data shone a spotlight on simmering inflationary pressures.
The report further fuelled fears the world's largest economy could be entering a recession.
In volatile trade, the blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.28 per cent, the tech-laden Nasdaq composite lost 0.95 per cent and the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index finished 0.56 per cent lower.
The Dow is down around 6 per cent for the year but the negative US sentiment has seen almost 8 per cent off the NZX-50, despite the fact that almost no commentators are forecasting a recession here.
Brokers said most of the selling appeared to be by institutional investors, with most retail investors sitting tight for the time being.
Market leader Telecom lost a cent to close at $4.13 and both Fletcher Building and Contact Energy slid to 13-month lows, down 10c at $10.20 and 22c at $7.75 respectively.
While the local market is dominated by negative overseas sentiment, local investors will be looking to the approaching reporting season to gauge how well local stocks are travelling.
Goldmand Sachs JBWere economist Shamubeel Eaqub believed results from defensive stocks would by and large be "pleasantly surprising".
Real estate investment trusts will be pretty strong, especially the ones that have high quality exposure like AMP New Zealand Office Property Trust and Kiwi Income Property Trust.
"I think those companies will continue to post very good earnings numbers but at the same time we're going to see most businesses report higher borrowing costs and we're going to see most businesses talking about a tough trading environment. This is the time to have very much a defensive focus."
The volatility in US and other overseas markets has also hit the New Zealand dollar which by 5pm yesterday was trading at US76.86c from US78.06c at the same time on Wednesday.
It has now lost almost US3c from the US79.39c level it hit on Monday.