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The New Zealand sharemarket opened down, as large trades in some of the country's largest listed companies were reported.
Sharebrokers said that shortly before the market opened trades of 25 million Telecom shares, 13.3 million Fisher & Paykel Healthcare shares and 6.5m F&P Appliances shares were recorded.
Around 10.20am the benchmark NZSX-50 index was down 11.84 points to 3322.3, after dropping 17 points yesterday.
While the number of Telecom shares changing hands was high, the price was unchanged soon after opening at 325, while the two F&P shares were up just 1c - Appliances to 186 and Healthcare to 289.
Yesterday Appliances shares plunged 11.5 per cent, or 24c, after the short term cost of the move of much of the company's manufacturing offshore was revealed.
The run up in Fletcher Building's price since its profit announcement ran out of steam, dropping 10c early to 700, after rising 11c yesterday.
Contact Energy was also down, dropping 9c to 850, NZ Farming Systems Uruguay was down 3c to 167, and Sanford lost 8c to 610.
AMP NZ Office Trust was up 2c to 108 after announcing a 27 per cent rise in full year distributable operating profit to $52m.
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US stocks sank as the prospect of more losses from the mortgage crisis hurt the shares of banks and the two biggest home finance providers, pushing all three major indexes down.
The Dow Jones industrial average tumbled 1.55 per cent to 11,479.39. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 1.51 per cent to 1278.60. The Nasdaq Composite Index slid 1.45 per cent to 2416.98.
- NZPA
