NZ shares tumble in early trade

The New Zealand sharemarket tumbled in early trade, following the lead of overseas markets after Dubai's shock call to suspend the debt of a key state company.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was down 38.61, points, or 1.2 per cent, to 3088.7, after an 11.9-point gain yesterday.

Fletcher Building lost 12c to $7.68 early, Contact Energy fell 10c to 585, Trustpower fell 10c to $7.40, Ebos Group was down 8c to $5.70, and Sky TV was down 6c to $4.59.

Shares falling 4c included Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, down to $3.15, NZ Refining Co to $4.51, Nuplex to $2.45, Sky City to $3.28, The Warehouse to $4.11, and Telecom to a seven-month low $2.38.

F&P Appliances was down 2c to 63, after reporting a net loss for the six months to the end of September of $82.4 million, on asset writedowns and weak sales.

The company said its normalised result was a loss of $847,000, compared to last year's profit of $22.3m. A pick up was expected in the second half of the year with a normalised net profit between $16m and $23m.

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Wall Street was closed overnight for the Thanksgiving holiday, while Europe's major stock markets plunged by more than three per cent after the Dubai news fuelled anxiety over heavy public borrowing.

- NZPA