KEY POINTS:
Today's slide in the New Zealand sharemarket appears to have been arrested, but the NZX still seems to be heading for a down day following the lead set overnight in the US and Europe.
The NZX-50 index is now down 54 points, or 1.8 per cent, to 2949 after finishing trading yesterday down 1 per cent, up from an earlier 2 per cent drop, to close at 3004.19. Earlier this afternoon it was down more than 2 per cent for the day.
Top stock Telecom is down 7c to $2.71, Contact Energy is down 12c to $7.33 and Fletcher Building shares are down 9 cents to $6.33.
* HONG KONG: Hong Kong's stock index plunged in early trade today.
The blue chip Hang Seng index tumbled 899.47 points, or 5.35 percent, to 15,904.29 minutes after trading started. The index ended down nearly 5 percent at 16,803.76 points on Monday ahead of a Tuesday holiday.
* TOKYO: The Japanese market has opened down, with the Nikkei index down 1.5 per cent.
* SYDNEY: The Australian share market has just opened down three and a half per cent.
Just after opening, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 was down 158.7 points, or 3.44 percent, to 4460, while the broader All Ordinaries had fallen 159.5 points points, or 3.47 percent, to 4438.4.
On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the December share price index futures contract had lost 202 points to 4486, on volume of 13,602 contracts.
The financial sector was hit hard again.
* WASHINGTON: Less than a week after the federal government had to bail out American International Group, the company sent executives on a $440,000 retreat to a posh California resort, lawmakers investigating the company's meltdown said Tuesday.
The tab included $US23,380 worth of spa treatments for AIG employees at the coastal St. Regis resort south of Los Angeles even as the company tapped into an $US85 billion loan from the government it needed to stave off bankruptcy.
The retreat didn't include anyone from the financial products division that nearly drove AIG under, but lawmakers were still enraged over thousands of dollars spent on catered banquets, golf outings and visits to the resort's spa and salon for executives of AIG's main US life insurance subsidiary.
"Average Americans are suffering economically. They're losing their jobs, their homes and their health insurance," Democratic House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman scolded. "Yet less than one week after the taxpayers rescued AIG, company executives could be found wining and dining at one of the most exclusive resorts in the nation."
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In early trading on the NZX, one of the few stocks to rise was Auckland Airport was up 1c to $1.81 and Restaurant Brands 1c to 66.
Sky City was down 7c to 318, Rakon 3c to $2.22, Pike River Coal 3c to $1.52, Infratil 5c to $1.95, Hallenstein Glassons 5c to $2.50 and Cavalier 5c to $2.40.
Dual-listed bank ANZ was down $1.00 to $20.00 shortly after announcing it would lower its variable mortgage rate in Australia in the wake of the Reserve Bank of Australia slashing the official cash rate by 1 percentage point to 6 per cent.
The RBA move added weight to expectations of a sizeable rate cut when the Reserve Bank of New Zealand meets on October 23, and lifted the New Zealand sharemarket off its lows yesterday.
European stocks drifted lower on Tuesday as mounting concerns about the health of the financial sector hit banks, with shares in Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS plunging about 40 per cent.
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The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares ended 0.14 per cent lower at 1003.51 points after witnessing its worst one-day percentage fall on record on Monday.
Germany's DAX index was down 1.1 per cent, the UK's FTSE 100 index up 0.4 per cent and France's CAC 40 up 0.6 per cent.
US stocks plunged overnight in their fifth straight declining session as fears mounted that the spiralling credit crisis would drag the economy into a deep recession.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 508.39 points, or 5.11 per cent, to 9447.11. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 60.66 points, or 5.74 per cent, to 996.23 - the first time the benchmark index has closed below the 1000 level in more than five years. The Nasdaq Composite Index slid 108.08 points, or 5.80 per cent, to 1754.88.
Japan's Nikkei average fell 3 per cent to post a five-year closing low on Tuesday as panic over the global financial crisis prompted investors to dump stocks.
- NZPA/ AP
