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The New Zealand market has once again held up relatively well in the face of big slumps on markets around the world.
It shed 1.29 per cent - about half the size of falls on Wall Street overnight Thursday.
Were it not for negative sentiment on Telecom after the first quarter result, it may have done even better, brokers said yesterday.
The big problem on Wall Street was in the banking sector with Citigroup shedding more than 6 per cent - its biggest fall since September 11.
The New Zealand market didn't have such a close correlation to the US financial sector as the Australian market did, said Macquarie Equities investment director Arthur Lim.
"So we don't suffer as big a swing," he said. Locally listed Australian banks such as ANZ, Westpac and AMP had driven the NZX-50 down.
Otherwise it was largely some negative sentiment about Telecom and continued weakness in Fletcher Building - related to concerns that the building sector was slowing down - that had led the fall.
"We held up well initially, but as they say in golf, we've come home in an ambulance," said James Smally a broker at Hamilton Hinden Greene.
Telecom was the "800 pound gorilla" on the local market and probably would have driven a fall on the NZX-50 regardless of global conditions, Smalley said.
On Wall Street, brokerages downgraded Citigroup and Bank of America, sparking fears of more fallout from the credit crisis.
Those concerns resurfaced with a vengeance just a day after the Federal Reserve cut benchmark interest rates.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 40.94 points, or 2.64 per cent, to 1508.44 - the index's biggest percentage point drop since August 9, the day French bank BNP Paribas spooked global markets by freezing three funds that had invested in US sub-prime mortgages.
The Dow Jones industrial average sank 362.14 points, or 2.6 per cent, to end at 13,567.87. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 64.29 points, or 2.25 per cent, to 2794.83.
The Nasdaq's and the Dow's declines were the worst since October 19, the 20th anniversary of the 1987 stockmarket crash.
In Australia, the ASX-200 fell 1.9 per cent per cent. Financial shares, led by Macquarie Bank, suffered the most.
BHP Billiton and Asian stocks stocks fell the most in almost two weeks on the US finance fallout.
The Morgan Stanley Capital International Asia-Pacific Index lost 1.8 per cent to 169.30 in trading in Tokyo. The Nikkei declined 1.6 per cent.
Around the world
* New Zealand: NZX-50 down 1.29 per cent
* Australia: ASX-200 down 1.9 per cent
* US: Dow Jones industrial average down 2.6 per cent
* Asia: Nikkei 225 down 1.6 per cent.