Local sharemarket sinks

The New Zealand sharemarket was lower in the first few minutes after opening for the week, as investors' eyes were on European Union finance ministers' struggle to contain their debt crisis and work out details of a new rescue mechanism for financially troubled governments.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was down 10.98 points to 3147.87, after losing 59.1 points on Friday amid turmoil on global equity markets.

Since the start of business last Wednesday the index has lost 150 points, and is now back to levels of late February.

Among the market leaders Telecom was down 3c early today to $2.10, after falling to a record intraday low of $2.07 on Friday, while Fletcher Building was unchanged on $7.95 and Contact Energy unchanged on $6.07.

Ebos Group was down 7c early to $6.20, Nuplex lost 5c to $3.20, Guinness Peat Group lost 4c to 84, Steel & Tube was down 4c to $2.53, Mainfreight fell 4c to $6.36, and NZ Refining Co was down 3c to $3.62.

But it was not all red ink, with Sky TV up 6c to $4.80, The Warehouse up 3c to $3.65, Trustpower up 2c to $7.22, and Michael Hill International gaining 2c to 74c.

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In the United States, stocks turned negative for the year on Friday on fears of another credit crisis stemming from Greece's souring finances and lingering questions about what triggered the previous session's dramatic plunge.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 1.3 per cent to end at 10,380.43, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 1.5 per cent to 1110.88, and the Nasdaq Composite Index finished 2.3 per cent lower at 2265.64.

The weekly declines for the Dow and the S&P 500 were the steepest since March 2009 when the market hit a 12-year low. The Nasdaq had its largest weekly drop since November 2008.

For the week, the Dow was off 5.7 per cent, the S&P 500 was down 6.4 per cent and the Nasdaq dipped 8 per cent. Over the past two weeks the Nasdaq has fallen more than 10 per cent, the threshold which many traders define as a market correction.

- NZPA