KEY POINTS:
Fletcher Building slid to a more than two-year low today, and the sharemarket capitulated to weakness across the Tasman and on other markets.
With markets down more than 2 per cent in Australia and Japan, the NZSX-50 benchmark index closed down 1.4 per cent, or 48.2 points, at 3439.2. Turnover totalled $140.3 million.
"Investor confidence in markets remains a problem. That's rolled over into New Zealand today for sure," said Nigel Scott of ABN Amro Craigs.
"The building sectors globally have been really hit quite hard, and that's obviously come into the likes of FBU (Fletcher Building)."
Third-ranked Fletcher Building lost 14c, or nearly 2 per cent, to 700, well below its record high of 1310 last July.
Real estate statistics yesterday showed the housing market was still depressed, and confidence has also ebbed out of housing markets in Australia, the United States and Britain.
Top stock Telecom was down 7c at 373, Contact Energy lost 10c to 856, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was down 8c at 235, F&P Appliances was also down 8c, at 210, and Sky City fell 9c to 349.
Auckland International Airport was alone among top-10 stocks in gaining ground, up 2c at 211.
PGG Wrightson, which today announced the purchase of 51 per cent of a rural servicing business in Uruguay, retreated from an earlier record high to close down 6c at 269. Its offshoot NZ Farming Systems Uruguay was down 5c at 184.
The country's largest electricity and gas distributor, Vector, lost a cent to 206 ahead of a shareholder vote on the sale of its Wellington electricity network for $785m.
The few top-50 stocks to rise, aside from Auckland Airport, were NZX, up 2c at 827, ING Medical Properties, up a cent at 115, Property for Industry, up a cent at 123, Sanford, 3c higher at 522, Steel & Tube, up 20c at 285, and Lion Nathan, up 11c at 1122.
Among stocks to fall, Mainfreight was down 13c at 720, Freightways lost 5c to 323, Hellaby Holdings fell 9c to 156, Goodman Fielder lost 9c to 191, and Tower fell 6c to 216.
"Markets just don't seem to be in a mode to bounce out of the low days - they might go quiet, but they're not bouncing like they have been," Mr Scott said.
Among dual-listed stocks, ANZ shed 70c to 2480, Westpac lost 35c to 2680, and AMP fell 20c to 900.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index was down 2.4 per cent at 5337, with financial sector companies declining on credit-related concerns.
Wall Street provided another negative lead earlier today, with the three key US indexes losing around 2 per cent, as the latest spike in crude oil prices undermined sentiment in a market already worried about inflation and troubles in the finance sector.
- NZPA
