KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand share market fell today as the global financial story turned sour again.
The Tokyo and Australian share markets slid 4 per cent after US stocks fell to six-week lows on Wednesday on worries about steeper losses at banks and as US retail sales data pointed to a deepening recession.
Against that backdrop it was seen as a good effort that the NZSX-50 index closed down 43.949 points, or 1.577 per cent, at 2742.835.
The market leaders, which tend to have offshore shareholders, were among the weakest.
Telecom was down 13c to 235. Fletcher Building was down 4c to 585 and Contact was down 15c to 730. The weakness in Fletcher Building came on a day in which two sets of data confirmed a weak housing market.
Goodman Fielder was down 12c to 175.
"You'd expect the leaders to be weak," said Stephen Wright at ASB Securities. "It is reflective of the weak market."
Corporate news is light ahead of the company profit reporting season.
The only other theme in trading today was strength in some shares which benefit from today's renewed plunge in the NZ dollar.
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rose 4c to 328 and Tourism Holdings rose 1c to 71. Steel & Tube was up 15c to 300 and Sanford was up 10 to 535.
Tower was unchanged at 160 as was TrustPower at 720.
Port of Tauranga, which was today critical of would-be terminal operator NZL Group, was down 6c to 632.
Freightways fell 7c to 286 and Mainfreight eased 8c to 472.
Air NZ was down 2c to 91 and The Warehouse was down 7c to 358.
Sales at US retailers fell 2.7 per cent in December. Consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of US economic activity, making it a key pillar of corporate profits.
Citigroup shed more than 23 per cent as investors and analysts worried whether the bank can be profitable as it unravels its business model. Citigroup is expected to post a multibillion-dollar loss this week.
Fears about the banking sector were exacerbated after Morgan Stanley analysts forecast HSBC, Europe's biggest bank, is likely to halve its dividend and may need to raise up to US$30 ($56.24) billion of capital, while Germany's Deutsche Bank said it lost more than US$6 billion last quarter.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 248.42 points, or 2.94 per cent, to 8200.14. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index gave up 29.17 points, or 3.35 per cent, at 842.62. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 56.82 points, or 3.67 per cent, to 1489.64 .
- NZPA
