KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket is down 1.8 per cent in early trading today.
Some Asian markets recovered yesterday and the Australian market pulled off its lows as central banks around the world cut interest rates, but US equities fell to five-year lows.
The Reserve Bank did not cut rates but was expected to move on October 23.
The NZX-50 index fell 53.176 points, or 1.806 per cent, to 2891.219 at 10.15am after closing yesterday at 2944.395.
Even The Warehouse's removal of an impediment to takeover activity did little to shift the focus from the market's awful global backdrop.
The Warehouse fell 8c to 341 after rising 40c, or 12.94 per cent, to 349 yesterday on news of the closure of its Extra stores.
Top-stock Telecom was down 7c to $2.58, Contact 10c to $7.20 and Fletcher Building 9c to $6.30.
Fisher & Paykel Appliances was down 6c to $1.43, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare 7c to $2.93, Mainfreight 25c to $5.50, NZ Refineries 32c to $5.78, Sanford 13c to $5.29 Trustpower 10c to $7.30.
Dual-listed banking and financial stocks took a hammering with Westpac down 60c to $24.00, ANZ 70c to $18.50 and AMP 14c to $7.20.
The only top-50 stock to rise was Property Index up 2c to $1.11.
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US stocks plummeted for a seventh straight session on Thursday as investors bet recent moves by authorities worldwide to thaw frozen credit markets would not be enough to avert a global recession.
An avalanche of selling at the close left the Dow Jones industrial average below 8600 for the first time since May 2003. The Nasdaq composite index and the Standard & Poor's 500 index each also fell to levels not seen in more than five years.
The Dow dropped 678.91 points, or 7.33 per cent, to 8579.19, while the S & P 500 plummeted 75.02 points, or 7.62 per cent, to 909.92. The Nasdaq sank 95.21 points, or 5.47 per cent, to 1645.12.
- NZPA
